Secret Operations
by ruthc93
Summary: The Secret Operations is not an organization that just anyone knows about. So sit back, relax, and be thankful that you can read about it without Skipper trying to track you down. Humanized. AU.
1. Prologue

**Hello, everyone. Welcome to my version of Penguins of Madagascar humanized AU. Whether you are a "Cool, I'm going to enjoy this" reader, a "Meh, let's see how this turns out" reader, or a "Dear God, not another one! Let's watch how bad this one's going to fail" reader, I wish all of you a pleasant time reading.**

**Basically, what I'm doing here is: throw all the characters into my alternate universe and rewrite the episodes my way. There will be (a lot of) variations as to storyline and the character's personalities to fit this T-rated story. I have a lot of ideas for this, and this here is just the Prologue. Actual chapters will be much longer, but because they're long, they'll also take a long time to update. Please understand that.**

**There will be some OCs along the way. But either they'll join the main cast or just be some random guy on the street will depend on how this project turns out.**

**Now, without further ado, enjoy the Prologue.**

**Disclaimer: Evidentally PoM doesn't belong to me, or this wouldn't be an AU.**

_**Prologue**_

A boy about the age of 15 yawned into the night. He hated night duty. Especially on a warm night like this that made most people want to crawl into their beds and never come out again. The boy had no doubt that is what his "friends" are doing right now while he was stationed here on _night duty_.

This wasn't what he had in mind when he joined The Aces. He had expected trial. Maybe some runs with breaking and entering. You know, something more gang-like. But, no, he was stuck here on night duty, guarding an old warehouse with other gang members sleeping peacefully inside.

He wondered why they even bothered with sentries. It's not like this place is worth anything. The people in it certainly weren't doing anything interesting. Anyone, he decided, that even bothered to break in here must be idiots.

Unbeknownst to the boy sentry, The Aces was a lot more than it seemed. This gang's name was on every NYPD rookie's "call for back-up immediately when sighted" list. This group has done way more than just breaking and entering, and the NYPD have been trying to pin them for months. But the leaders were smart. They never let low-ranked members know what they're doing, and the higher-ups were nowhere to be found. In other words, they gave the NYPD commissioner one hell of a headache.

But there was another group of people trying to bring The Aces to justice. And that said group had a four man team on the roof of a building opposite of the warehouse right this moment, looking for the right time to strike.

The shortest shifted uncomfortably. He stole a glance at the one beside him. "Is this really the place, Skipper?" He asked in a distinct British accent. "I mean, that sentry is just a kid!"

The one known as Skipper rolled his eyes, "Yes, Private, I'm pretty sure that Tom wouldn't give us false info if he can help it." Then he smirked. "Besides, you're just a kid yourself." He reached out a half-gloved hand and fondly ruffled the boy's already messy hair.

"I'm seventeen." Private protested while ducking out of Skipper's reach. He then quickly positioned himself behind the tallest man. The man smiled and pushed up his glasses before saying, "He's right, you know. In some countries, seventeen is considered the legal age of citizenship."

Skipper rolled his eyes. Again. "Seriously, that sentry can't be younger than fifteen. You don't call someone a kid when you're only two years older than him."

The tall man paused while he pondered this. Then he flashed Private an apologetic grin, "He's also right, you know."

"Kowalski! Just whose side are you on?" Private pouted.

As the three continued to argue, the fourth man chuckled quietly at the scene. Then he trained his wild eyes on the boy below them. Noticing that the boy was falling asleep, he quickly motioned for the other three's attention.

"This is it, boys." Skipper smirked. "Showtime."

* * *

The boy jerked awake. He had fallen asleep. How did that happen?

No, wait, of course it would happen. It was dark, and he was bored. Perfect combo.

So, why's he awake now?

He had about two seconds to ponder this before some…_thing_ crashed through the warehouse door he was stationed at. It took him a couple of minutes to realize that the "thing" was actually one of the menacing gang members that was present when he joined The Aces. Not that the guy looked anything close to menacing with his head stuck in a metal bucket.

The boy carefully edged towards the fallen man. Gingerly, he poked the guy in the ribs. Was he dead?

"Well, that was easy."

The boy jerked when he heard the voice. He gulped and turned slowly to the entrance. Something was coming. Something that had beaten this guy on the floor up like it was nothing. Something…

…that looked like four normal people. Normal aside from the fact they were dressed exactly the same: black pants, white shirts, black jackets, black shoes, and black fingerless gloves.

He stared. They stared. The whole world seemed to stare. Then the man with the buzz cut and dark, sapphire eyes broke the silence. "So…you're awake."

He nodded.

"What's your name, kiddo?"

"T-Tom."

The man smirked. "Tom. I like that name."

"Uh…thanks?"

"You didn't see anything."

"Huh?"

"Rico!"

Tom jumped when the one with the scar held up a sphere that definitely wasn't in his hand the second before. Then his world was replaced by a purple cloud. A very comfortable looking purple cloud.

He was so tired, and the cloud was tempting. So when he saw those dark blue eyes again, he just smiled.

"Remember, you didn't see anything." The eyes said.

"Nothing. Got it." Tom gave a goofy smile before flopping himself on the purple cloud blanket. Ah, sleep at last.

_**To be continued…**_

**Well, there you have it. Let me know if this interests you.**

**~ruth~**


	2. Chapter 1

**So, Chapter 1. I actually finished it.**

**First, I'd like to thank Fun Time Special, Illyria Lives, and Eppo-pink-skuller-fly-fangirl-XDXDX for reviewing. I realized that with the PoM fics being updated as fast as they are, my story gets pushed to page two by the next day, so not a lot of people probably even noticed that there's a new story out. Well, I guess I'm lucky to have three kind reviewers. Thanks again, guys!**

**This chapter could be a little boring, mainly because I'm using Chapter 1 to explain my world and introduce some of the cast. The episode-rewriting will start next chapter. I promise.**

**Disclaimer: The Penguins of Madagascar does not belong to me, end of story.**

_**Chapter 1**_

The Secret Operations Headquarters was not a place you would find listed on the local phonebook. That is, given that you've even heard about this place in the first place. Only a handful outside the Secret Ops even knew this place existed. And about half of that was dead.

By complete natural causes, of course.

But they had a good reason to be so secretive about their actions. They were on every criminal mastermind's "eliminate when sighted" list. But despite their good intentions, they were also on NYPD commissioner's "capture if at all possible" list. Now how is it possible that a group of people are hiding from both sides of the law?

Simple. Because the Secret Operations is a group of vigilantes.

Team Penguin was the action team of the Secret Ops. If there's a place to be broken into or people to be stopped, they were the ones you go running to. The four man team had worked together for six years and counting. Right now, they were on their way home, congratulating themselves on yet another successful mission.

Skipper was the leader of Team Penguin. At the age of 28, he was the best martial arts user among all the operatives. He's a natural born leader, with piercing sapphire eyes that dared anyone to disobey him. So far, only three people had braved the eyes.

Kowalski was Skipper's most trusted colleague. As long as he was not in the lab, that is. Though he was a year younger than Skipper, he had the intelligence that most grown man could only dream about. But despite all his knowledge, he was still prone to blowing things up by accident in his lab. Kowalski had a reputation for being the one to cause the second most explosions, losing only to Rico.

Now, Rico was a special one. He had lived in Secret Ops pretty much all his life. Perhaps it was due to his exposure to weapons and sharp objects at a young age, but over the years, he had taken a liking to explosives and swords. Now, when he held anything blade-like and explosive-looking, people knew they need to run. Fast. He also had the unusual ability to hide any weapon on him as long as he's wearing clothes. He's a walking weapon vault.

The last member of this team was Private. Of course, that's not really his name, but no one knew his real name. Not even Private himself. He's the youngest Penguin, being only 17 years old. Despite being well into his teenage years, he still had a heart of gold and innocence that no one could question. Not even Skipper.

They gave each other a series of complicated high-fives while walking through the door of an apartment building. The manager at the counter looked up, rolled her eyes, and placed her attention back on her computer. Private noticed her and waved, "Hey, Alice."

Alice waved at him without looking up. Private smiled. Alice may not be the nicest red-head around, but she was nice enough to him. Most of the time.

"Let's go, Private!" Skipper called from where the others were already waiting inside the elevator. Private quickened his pace and smiled apologetically, "Sorry."

The elevator door slid close as soon as the boy stepped in.

To any other person, this elevator couldn't have been more normal looking. And to any other person, the Emergency Button in the elevator was a circle you wouldn't want to touch unless you were in trouble.

But Skipper was not just any other person.

He didn't hesitate as he pressed the red bell image on the circle. There was a slight pause before the speaker came to life.

"You have pressed the Emergency Button. Please state your emergency." A robotic female voice sounded.

"Scan." Skipper said simply. Immediately, the button shone as it scanned Skipper's finger. At the same time, the voice identifier recognized his voice, and a bar of blue light projected from the lamp above them, scanning the enclosed space. It ran over the elevator's four occupants, reading their body build and jaw lines. After it was done, a tubular gadget came out from the wall beside them and took careful aim at their eyes. It was really a retinal scanner, and after it collected the data it needed, it disappeared back into the wall.

All that took less than five seconds.

"Operatives confirmed." The female voice sounded again, but this time it lost the robotic edge. "Codename: Skipper. Codename: Rico. Codename: Private. Codename: Kowalski. Please state your destination."

"Ground floor." Skipper announced.

"Destination confirmed." And with that, the elevator took them down.

Skipper gave a long whistle. "I'm still impressed. Love what you did to this cube, Kowalski."

Kowalski smiled. "Just did what I do best, Skipper." The elevator continued to descend as Skipper smirked and punched Kowalski lightly on the shoulder.

Of course, no one outside Secret Ops knew about the additional sub-level floors. To anyone who happened to be standing outside the elevator right now, the elevator had just stopped at the Power Room in the basement. But in reality, the elevator was already a good fifty feet underground.

The elevator gave a nice _ding_ as it reached its floor. The four operatives braced themselves as the doors slid open.

"Hey, the Penguins are back!" Someone shouted from amid the swarm of people that were passing through the lobby. Immediately, they became the center of attention for about three seconds. People waved at them. Some smiled and winked. Others asked how their mission was without really wanting to know the answer. As soon as the three seconds passed, everyone was back to their own business again.

"Ah, the HQ." Skipper sighed with content. "It's good to be home."

"Well, if it isn't the Penguins." Another voice called out. The Penguins looked up to see a man with trimmed dark brown hair walking towards them. "Back from another successful mission, I presume?"

"You presume correctly." Skipper said proudly. The other man chuckled, "Well, I expected nothing less from our finest field team."

"Gee, thanks, Mason." Private said replied, a little embarrassed even though he really shouldn't be. "We're not _that_ good. By the way, where's Phil?"

The one called Mason rolled his eyes. "He ran into some trouble trying to trick the Gorilla Twins. He's still at the med bay."

"Oh no," Private gasped. The Gorilla Twins were famous for their extensive use of brute force. There was only one person so far that ticked them off and got away with it. "Is he alright?"

"Please, if he went down every time someone pounded him, he wouldn't even be alive right now." Mason replied with a laugh. "Well then. I still need to file away this other mission. I'd better get going." They said their good byes and watched the man go. "Speaking of missions," Skipper said. "Let's report this one to Tom."

* * *

Tom was the chief of the whole Secret Operations. His great-grandfather had founded this organization, and as the years passed, the torch was passed down to him. He's been running Secret Ops for twenty years now, and he had to say that right now this place had officially reached its golden years. Everything was going smoothly, though they still haven't had any progress in getting the PD commissioner's trust. But that could wait.

Tom frowned at the piece of info that was just sent in from one of the undercover teams. If what was written on the paper was real, this could mean trouble. Or, it could just mean that a bored kid got too familiar with the Internet. Still, if this particular operative thought that this was important enough to send back, Tom knew better than to just wave it off as a false alarm.

There was a knock at his office door. Tom casually slid the paper into a folder and put it in the drawer as he called. "Come in."

The door opened, and Team Penguin walked into the office. "We've put a stop to that drug deal and triggered the alarm so the NYPD could find them." Skipper reported as soon as the door closed.

"I knew I could count on you guys." Tom said with a smile. "Great job, Penguins."

"But that's not all." Skipper stated seriously. "Rico!"

Tom raised an eyebrow when the scarred operative pulled out a gun-like device from seeming out of nowhere and placed it on his desk. Even after years of seeing Rico do that, Tom still hadn't gotten used to it. _He could make a living as a magician._ He thought. Gingerly, he examined the device.

"One of the punks tried to nick us with that before we took him out." Skipper explained. "Well, I'm not really good with these kinds of things. Kowalski, report."

Kowalski stepped forward and reached out a hand to ask for the device. As soon as Tom handed it to him, he began to expertly dismantle it. "It seemed to emit a highly condensed electric charge. Well, seeing the dial on this device, I would assume that there are different settings on it." He frowned when he read the setting. "And according to this, that kid had wanted to turn us to dust." He muttered almost amusingly.

"The device, Kowalski?" Tom and Skipper reminded him at the same time, one a friendly reminder, the other bordering on annoyance. Kowalski blinked and mentally shook himself. "Right." He returned to dismantling it, reporting his findings as he went. "The outer shell is made of a metal that's harder than titanium. Someone must have been making new alloys out there, because I've never seen this kind of metal. The device itself is built simple enough. It's actually easier to put together than an actual gun. No offense, Rico. Now, this must be the unit that contains its power source, if I can just get it opened…aha! Got it! Now let's see what…good Galileo!"

Private, having let his mind wander some time during Kowalski's report, snapped his attention back at the outburst. Skipper was immediately beside the tall scientist. "What is it, Kowalski?"

"I…I don't really know." Kowalski admitted. He pulled out a small cylinder that glowed with a green ring of light running through it at about one ring per second, staring at it in awe. "I've never seen anything like it. And coming from me, that's really something." He held the cylinder up against the light. "I'll have to run some tests in my lab."

"Then, go right ahead and do it." Tom stated. "Make sure you find out what it is." The scientist nodded. He carefully slipped it into a plastic bag he had with him and put it in his pocket.

"I think we all agree that this device is way too advanced for The Aces." Skipper said grimly. "Someone's been supplying them. And I think I know who it is."

Everyone immediately caught on. Private shifted nervously at the thought of that person. Rico and Kowalski both stared off into space, lost in past memories. Tom sighed. "Let's not jump to conclusions here, Skipper. It could be any other person that made this thing."

Skipper placed his hands on Tom's desk and leaned forward. "But Tom, if it really _is_ him, we need to take precaution. A lot of precaution. You know just as well as I do about what he's capable of!"

"I know." Tom drew in a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. "I know. We've lost too many men to him for me not to."

The room fell into silence. Everyone was thinking about what was just said. Finally, Tom ran a hand through his graying hair and sighed yet again. "I understand your reasons to blame it on him, Skipper. Heck, I'd want to blame it on that madman myself. But we don't have enough evidence to prove that it's him. For all we know, The Aces might have just recruited someone like Kowalski."

Skipper opened his mouth to say something, but immediately shut it again. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. "You're right. I'm sorry, Tom. No jumping to conclusions. Got it."

Tom raised an eyebrow. "That's it? No argument, no nothing?" Skipper shrugged. "I'm tired."

Tom nodded carefully, still not completely convinced. "Alright then. If you're tired, why don't you just go ahead and take a rest? And I mean _all_ of you, of course."

"Yes, Tom." They all said at the same time. And with that, they began to walk out the door one by one.

"Oh, and Skipper?" Tom said just as the leader Penguin was walking out. "When I said rest, I _mean_ rest. Don't let me find you in the training room today." Skipper waved a hand without turning around and continued out the door.

Tom smiled when he was once again alone in his office. He looked down at his desk and traced the carving on it, thinking.

The door opened again. Tom didn't need to look up to know who it was. There were only two people that came into his office without knocking, and one of them was on a mission. "Hello, Eric."

"You know he's never going to listen to you, right?"

"Of course!" Tom laughed. "He's probably going to find another place to train or just disappear somewhere topside."

"Now doesn't that sound familiar?" Eric asked sarcastically. Tom chuckled. "Yeah, I know. Reminds me of me twenty-five years ago. But hey, if Dad took the time to try to speak some sense into me then, what's so wrong with me doing it now?"

"You mean besides the fact that Skipper's not your son?" Eric said with a roll of his eyes. "Absolutely nothing."

* * *

The Penguins didn't make it ten feet away from the office when Skipper stopped.

"Skipper? Are you okay?" Private asked worriedly. Skipper smirked and turned to the boy. "Why, I'm absolutely fine, Private. Now the question is, are _you_ okay?"

"Eh?" Private blinked at this unexpected question. "You've been cradling that arm for quite a while now. What's wrong with it?" Skipper pointed at the arm that Private was carefully holding on to. Private shifted nervously and tried to hide his arm. "I-it's nothing, Skipper, I'm just, you know…picking up a new habit?"

"Right." Skipper said, every inch of that word dripping with sarcasm. "Rico!"

Private didn't even have time to blink when the bulky operative grabbed his wrist and pulled the arm up. Private winced at the strong grip as Rico rolled up his sleeve, revealing a long cut running up the arm.

Skipper drew in a sharp breath, which Private had long since realized was the leader's way of gasping. "Private, why didn't you tell us about this?"

"I didn't want to worry you…" He said uncertainly. "B-besides, it's already stopped bleeding. I figure it's nothing serious."

"Nothing serious? That gash is five inches long!" Skipper said.

"Actually, Skipper, it is only three inches long." Kowalski corrected helpfully. Skipper sent the strategist a glare that said "shut up now or else". Kowalski complied.

Turning his attention back on the boy, Skipper sternly said, "Private, I want you to go to the med bay. Now."

"Bu-"

"No buts. Now hop to it." Skipper said as he pushed the boy in the general direction of the med bay. But before Private could go, Kowalski suddenly cleared his throat. "Um…Skipper? I'm requesting permission to go with Private."

Skipper stared. "Kowalski, Private hurt his arm, not his legs. I'm pretty sure he can find the med bay without running into a wall." Skipper almost laughed when the taller operative gave him an almost pleading look. Realization dawned on Skipper and he smirked. "Oh, I guess it wouldn't hurt. Go right ahead, Kowalski."

"Thank you, Skipper." Kowalski said gratefully. He quickly placed a hand on Private's shoulder and guided the young Penguin away.

As the duo disappeared round the corner, Skipper gave an amused chuckle. "Look at him, Rico. Have you ever seen a man more in love?"

"D'awww." Rico replied with a smirk. Skipper smirked back, and they shared a high-five. "And he thinks we don't know. Seriously, how stupid does he think we are?"

* * *

"Really, Kowalski," Private protested. "You didn't have to come with me."

"Oh, I don't mind." Kowalski said quickly. A little too quick. Private thought about it for about two seconds before hitting his fist against his palm. "Oh, I get it! You want to see-"

He never finished the sentence, as Kowalski had clamped his hand onto his mouth, a blush starting to spread across his face. "Don't say it out loud!" He hissed in a panicked whisper. Private nodded to show he got the message before pushing the taller operative's hand away, thankful that he's able to breathe again.

"But, Kowalski," He asked confusedly once he caught his breath, "If you like her so much, why don't you just tell her?"

If possible, Kowalski's face went even redder. "It's…it's complicated." He said weakly as he turned to stare at the passing wall. Private looked at Kowalski's flustered face and giggled, ignoring the pain that was still on his arm. Kowalski cleared his throat, pushed up his glasses, and tried to maintain what little dignity he had left. "A-anyways, you'll understand as you grow older. Right now, we need to get that arm of yours treated. Wouldn't want it to get infected"

"Right." Private replied cheerfully, a teasing tone evident in his voice. Kowalski returned the tease by ruffling the shorter Penguin's hair.

Kowalski managed to suppress his blush as they neared the med bay. Taking a deep breath, he reached out to open the door.

He didn't get more than three inches closer before the door swung open and hit him square in the face.

"Ow!" He cried out, stumbling backwards. Private, being right behind him, hurriedly tried to support and steady the scientist. But Kowalski's weight proved to be too much for the boy, and they both tumbled to the floor.

Kowalski collected himself enough to look up through his fingers. A very surprised light-haired replica of Mason stared back at him. Kowalski groaned. "Phil…"

The other man looked at him guiltily before running through a series of hand signs. Kowalski stopped him at the twelfth. "Look, Phil, I don't understand sign language. Even if I did, you're going way too fast for anyone to understand." He rubbed at his nose. "I guess you're trying to apologize. I'm fine. You might have given me a broken nose, but I'm fine."

"A broken nose?" A new voice suddenly cut into what was starting to be a one-sided conversation. Kowalski felt his blush threatening to return as another person stepped out from behind Phil. Violet eyes met his blue ones as the person, now revealed to be a young woman, laughed lightheartedly while smoothing her white medical coat. "I've seen your nose survive worse than a swinging door, Kowalski. I'm sure it's fine." She finished with a soft pat on Kowalski's nose. The strategist blushed again, this time in embarrassment.

"Doris…" He said in a voice that was almost a whine. The blue-haired medic laughed again. "Well, if you're so worried, I'll take a look at it anyways. Oh, and you might want to get off poor Private."

* * *

In the Penguins' living quarters, Skipper leaned back in his chair. His mind was racing with what they had found out earlier.

_It has to be him._ He thought. _As much as I hate to admit it, he's the only one I know that's better than Kowalski._

His fingers clasped themselves together as he brought them up to his mouth, a pose he often took when brooding. He had to find out more about The Aces. So far their only knowledge of the gang was that they've been breaking so many laws that you could fill two books with their crimes. But if that person was involved, then The Aces were definitely a lot more sinister than they appeared to be. It always had. If he could only get Tom to see that…

_What would you have done, Johnson?_ He found himself asking. He quickly stopped himself before he could fall into the painful memories again.

He sighed. Then he almost jumped when a small explosion came from behind him. He turned and glared. "Rico. What did I say about indoor testing?"

Rico, who was sitting amid his array of weaponry, smiled sheepishly. "Sorry." Skipper looked at the small, smoking crater that now marred the floor and sighed again. "Just make sure you clean that before Private gets back."

Rico nodded. Skipper was about to return to his brooding when a strikingly familiar (and loud) voice could be heard out in the hallway. Skipper blanched. "No…they can't be back so soon! They only left a minute before we did!"

Rico got up, his weapons now safely hidden in his clothes, and opened the door to the hallway. He gave his leader a knowing look. Skipper returned the look with a grateful one and ran out the door. He had to get away before…_he_ came.

He was about to round a corner when a blur of brown and gray invaded his vision. He stopped before he could ram into the upside-down face that was grinning at him, flashing its almost perfect teeth. Skipper cursed. _Too late_.

"Silly Penguin. Where do you think you're going?"

_**To be continued…**_

**Okay, if you thought the one Kowalski was blushing so much about was Marlene, raise your hand. *All Marski fans raise hands* …Thought so. Sorry, the pairing here is Koris/Kowaris, whichever you prefer. For those of you worried about there being no Marlene, well, you can stop. Marlene will be in this story, but she'll be a little late.**

**Ah, the last part seems rushed. Honestly, I ran out of ideas for that scene. So it turned into **_**that**_**. I don't really like it myself.**

**Kudos to anyone who can guess who the mysterious _that person_ is. It shouldn't be too hard.**

**Another thing. Tom and Eric are just names that I decided to use for my "chief" characters, and have nothing to do with Tom McGrath and Eric Darnell themselves. I considered Alice, but it didn't seem likely that Skipper would take orders from her, even if she was his superior. I even considered other animals in the zoo, but they didn't seem to fit, either. So in the end, I went with the directors' names. It just seemed better that way.**

**And now to prevent my Authoress' Note to become as long as the chapter itself, I'm going to shut up and go work on the next chapter, which should be out within two weeks. Hopefully.**

**~ruth~**


	3. Chapter 2: Gone

**First off, I do not like this chapter. Not one bit. But I had to write it for continuity's sake. This chapter is necessary for me to carry out the rest of the story.**

**Still, I didn't like how it turned out. So be warned. It could be boring.**

**Once again, I want to thank Illyria Lives, Eppo-pink-skuller-fly-fangirl-XDXDX, Anonymous Reviewer, Ultimate-Kowalski-Lover, and Obsessed Chocoholic for their encouraging reviews. Every single one helps motivate me to hurry up and write the story. I love you guys!**

**Now on to the not-so-good Chapter 2, based on the episode **_**Gone in a Flash**_**.**

**Disclaimer: Why would I even write a disclaimer if I owned the show?**

* * *

_**Chapter 2: Gone**_

"Ringtail." Skipper hissed in annoyance. The upside-down face smiled even wider. "Why, thank you for remembering me, Penguin."

"You're welcome." Skipper spat sarcastically. "Now get down from there before I do it myself."

The tanned man pouted, his genetically altered orange eyes widening in an attempt to appear innocent. Skipper could feel his patience hanging on a thin thread that's threatening to break. "Three…"

"Okay, okay! Sheesh, you're no fun." The man unwound his black and white tail from the hook in the ceiling and did a quick back-flip, landing gracefully on his feet. He looked up at Skipper and smirked. "This is why I, Julien XIII, have chosen you to be the rival of the awesomeness that is me."

"I'd rather you didn't." Skipper muttered under his breath. Julien's beast-like ears twitched, and Skipper cursed himself for not recalling the narcissist's enhanced hearing until too late. "Of course I would, silly Penguin! You're the exact opposite of me! So by being rivals, we can find out whether fun is better or work."

"Look, Ringtail, I need to get going." Skipper sighed. "So, would you please move?"

"What is the hurry?" Julien laughed. "You, my bossy friend, need to take things slower. Enjoy life while you can, no?"

_I'll enjoy it when you're not in it._ Skipper thought as he tried to push pass Julien. Julien sidestepped at first, but then used his tail to enwrap the Penguin, stopping him from going any further. "Ringtail," Skipper said as calmly as he could with the other man's accursed tail in his face. "If you've just returned from a mission, don't you have to report to Tom first?"

"Maurice and Mort are already doing that!" Julien laughed. Again. "Besides, tormenting you with my superior acrobatic skills amuses me."

Before Skipper could reply to that, the man withdrew his tail. The speed caused Skipper to spin with it and fall to the floor.

Skipper cursed yet again as the obnoxious half-lemur ran down the hall, laughing. "_Ringtail!_"

* * *

"There, that should do it."

Private took a look at his newly bandaged arm and smiled. "Thanks, Doris. We wouldn't all be here without you."

"Aw, Private. You're too kind." Doris returned the smile. She then turned to the other Penguin present. "Right then, do you still want me to take a look at that broken nose, Kowalski?" She said jokingly. She waited for the response that didn't come.

"Kowalski?" She snapped her fingers in front of his face, and the strategist jumped like he was jolted with electricity. "Who what?"

"Are you okay?" Doris asked, a little concerned. Kowalski blinked a few times, then smiled sheepishly, "I'm fine. I was just…you know…thinking about an experiment." Private rolled his eyes. He wanted so badly to point out that Kowalski had been staring at Doris for the past twenty minutes, but Kowalski would probably kill him. Then revive him and kill him again.

"You've been experimenting?" Doris said with mock surprise. "Why, I haven't heard an explosion all week!"

"Hey, not _all_ of my experiments go up in smoke." Kowalski defended, sounding a little hurt. Doris laughed. "I'm just joking."

Suddenly, the door to the med bay opened. The three occupants of the room turned to look, and were surprised to see a young boy standing there by himself.

"Hello." The boy said politely.

"Hello, Mort." Private, being the first one to recover, replied. "Where are Maurice and Julien? I've never seen you without at least one of them."

Th boy, now known as Mort, shifted nervously and scratched at his messy brown hair. "Master Julien ran off the moment we came in. Maurice is…gone."

"Gone?" Kowalski asked, alarmed. "What do you mean, gone?"

"Ju-just…gone. Not here." Mort stammered, frightened by the sudden urgency in Kowalski's voice. "H-he was gone while we were returning."

"Does Julien know about this?" Doris asked in a more soothing tone. Mort visible relaxed. But he still stammered. "N-no. Master Julien was talking all the way. He didn't notice when Maurice went away."

"Wait. You saw him disappear and you didn't say anything?" Kowalski asked in disbelief. Mort hesitated. "I…I cannot say."

"What do you mean, you cannot say?" Kowalski demanded, a little harsher than he intended to. Mort's already huge eyes widened even more as tears threatened to spill. "I…I just can't! Maurice is gone! That's all!" He squeaked before turning and running out the door. But he didn't make it out before running into the wall first, leaving three stunned operatives behind.

"You didn't have to be so hard on him." Doris sent a mild glare at Kowalski, who flinched. "Didn't you see that cut on his face? Now it's going to take forever for me to find him."

"Sorry."

"Oh, dear." Private said. "Do you reckon something bad happened to Maurice?"

"I don't know. That twelve-year-old wasn't exactly specific." Kowalski said. "I guess we can ask Julien about it."

"Well, we'll have to find him first." Private pointed out. Kowalski was about to agree when an earth-shaking yell resounded through the entire base.

"_Ringtail!_"

The three looked at each other for a moment. Then Kowalski said, "Well, at least that'll save us the trouble of finding him."

* * *

"It wasn't fair." Julien complained twenty minutes later. His lemur ears were flattened against his head. "He didn't have to actually _break_ my arm."

"I didn't break it. I _cracked_ it." Skipper declared. "There's a difference."

"Now I have to wear this cast." Julien said, completely ignoring the Penguin. "Honestly, why is he so violent?"

"You had it coming, Ringtail."

"Now that I'm having to wear this cast, my awesome image is ruined." The half-lemur sighed dramatically, again ignoring Skipper. Skipper's eye twitched in annoyance.

"Hold still, Julien," Doris scolded, "Unless you want it to be broken instead of just cracked."

Ten minutes earlier, Skipper had dragged a wailing Julien into the med bay. Now, Doris is treating Julien, and Skipper just crossed his arms, sat in one of the chairs, and watched the entire process.

Kowalski and Private glanced at each other, sharing a look that said "here we go again". This wasn't the first time that Julien had ticked Skipper off enough for the Penguin leader to actually hurt him. In fact, it happened about twice a month.

They waited until Julien's arm was properly bandaged, which took another twenty minutes due to the half-lemur's inability to stay still for more than two minutes. Doris sank into her swiveling chair, feeling more than a bit exhausted. "Next time you move so much while I'm treating you, Julien, I swear I'll break your other arm, too."

"Crack." Skipper corrected insistently. Doris just shrugged.

Kowalski cleared his throat before Skipper could explode again. "Julien, we want to ask you about Maurice."

"Yes, yes, what about him?" Julien asked, now examining his cast.

"Well, Mort came in about an hour ago, saying that Maurice was…gone." Private explained.

"Gone?" Skipper repeated. Julien just laughed it off, "Gone? How can he be gone? He was listening to my glorious story all the way home! There's no way he could've been gone!"

"Are you absolutely sure?" Kowalski pressed.

"Of course I'm sure!" Julien scoffed. Then he frowned. "Well, now that I thought about it, Maurice _was_ unusually quiet."

"Define quiet." Skipper demanded.

"Well, he didn't say anything at all. No 'Yes, Julien', 'That's very good, Julien', or 'Julien, you're the awesome-est operative that's ever lived!'...Okay, I made that last one up." Julien laughed at his own joke. "Oh yes, that reminds me, smart-y Penguin, your elevator thingy is broke! It didn't say Maurice's name after it showered us with lights!"

The whole room stared. Skipper groaned, "Ringtail…"

"What?" Julien asked, genuinely confused.

"You just…you…never mind." Skipper gave up trying to make the narcissist understand. Instead, he turned to his team, "Private, get Rico. Kowalski, get the gadgets required. Since this is a daytime mission, I want you all to change into casual clothes. We'll meet at the elevator in ten minutes. I'll go tell Tom we're on Operation: Lemur Rescue."

The other two nodded, and the Penguins were off.

"Uh…rescue what lemur, exactly?" Julien asked the remaining person. Doris gave him a look.

"What?" Julien demanded.

Doris shook her head, let out a small sigh, and walked away. Needless to say, Julien was utterly confused by this action. "What?"

* * *

Team Penguin was now on the roof of their building, looking over the city.

"Alright, team. We need to find a missing operative. We have no idea where he is, when he went MIA, or where he was last seen." Skipper announced. Then he sighed. "This is going to take a while."

"Actually, Skipper," Private spoke up, "Rico and I ran into Mort on our way to the elevator. After we got him to stop crying-"

"Crying?" Skipper raised an eyebrow.

Private winced at the memory. "Well…when I said that we 'ran into' Mort, I meant it quite literally."

"Oh." Skipper nodded. Mort was infamous for being accident-prone, even when he's in a room with absolutely nothing in it. He'd just trip over his own feet. "Continue."

"Well, as I was saying, after we got him to stop crying, we asked him about Maurice. It was kind of hard, since he wouldn't say anything, for some reason. But then Rico pulled out a lolly-"

Rico quickly slapped Private on the back before he could finish the word. Private jumped, then continued, "…I mean, a _bargaining item_, and Mort accepted it. He told us that he last saw Maurice at Roger's."

"Roger's…" Skipper pondered over this new piece of information, completely missing the "you almost did it" glare Rico gave Private. Private returned the glare with an "I'm sorry!" shrug. Kowalski took all this in, highly amused. Then Skipper finally broken the tension. "Did you get anything else?"

"No. He ran away before Rico could get the second lo-bargaining item out." Private replied, making sure to correct himself before Rico could slap him again.

"Well, at least it's a start." Skipper sighed. "C'mon, boys. We're going to Roger's."

As they took off into the city, Kowalski came up beside Rico and raised an eyebrow. "Lollypop?"

Rico winced and nodded carefully. "Secret." He said.

"Can I have one?"

Rico stared until he remembered the scientist's abnormal…_interest_ in sweets. He glanced ahead to see if Skipper was looking, and was relieved to see their leader talking to Private. In one swift move of his hand, he slipped one piece of the candy over to Kowalski, who hid it just as quickly.

"Never happened." Rico said simply. Kowalski nodded in agreement. "Right."

* * *

Roger's Café is a small shop downtown that you would've missed if you weren't looking for it. And most people didn't bother looking for it. That's why it became one of the Secret Ops operatives' favorite places to hang out at.

The man running the shop was, obviously, Roger. Roger was one of the few individuals that knew of the entire Secret Ops. He's a kind-hearted man that looked like someone that should've been with the mafia. If he's not smiling, you'd think he's going to kill you right there and then. But luckily for those within a five-meter radius around him, he smiled quite frequently.

"Guys!" He said cheerfully when the Penguins walked in through the door. "Oh, I'm so glad to see you guys! I just baked some fresh cookies, but there was no one to share them with! I'll go get them now!"

Skipper stopped him before he could turn. "As much as we want to taste your delicious pastries, Roger, we're here strictly on business."

"Oh, goodness." Roger dropped his smile for just a split second. But it was enough to make Private flinch. "It's not about The Aces again, is it?"

"We don't know yet." Skipper said. "But you can help us find out."

"Well then," Roger resumed smiling, and Private let out a breath in relief, "How can I help?"

"We're looking for Maurice." Skipper explained.

"Maurice?" The huge man snapped his fingers in realization. "He was just here about two hours ago."

"Can you tell us the details?" Kowalski asked, his homemade computer, which he had simply named the Notepad, already in hand.

Roger moved around, getting the cookies out of the oven while he talked. It's a habit he had built up over the years. "I saw him with Julien and Mort, passing right by my café. But after a few seconds, Maurice returned alone. At first I thought Julien wanted him to get something for him, but then Maurice sat down and ordered his usual. He looked really tired, you know? I was about to ask him what was wrong when he placed the money on the counter and walked out." Roger shook his head. "He must've been really out of it. He didn't even finish his espresso!"

"You're kidding." Skipper said in disbelief. Being Julien's closet thing to a friend, Maurice had to put up with the narcissistic half-lemur's attitude around the clock. His normal diet consisted of two cups of espresso coffee and anything else with sugar. No one had ever seen the man leave the table until both cups of coffee were empty.

"I'm worried, Skipper." Roger said quietly. "He mumbled something about the docks when he left. Maybe you can find him there?"

"The docks." Skipper repeated, and Kowalski just finished jotting down the details. "Alright then, let's go."

The team turned to leave, but they were stopped by Roger.

"Wait!" He held up the brown paper bag that now had all the cookies in it. "Take this with you. Good luck on finding Maurice."

* * *

"Private." Skipper said in a tone that suggested he was on the verge of yelling. "If I hear you say _anything_ about those cookies again, I'll personally make sure you don't get to eat the rest of them."

Private let out a squeal. "Sorry, Skipper."

The Penguins are now at the docks, which was buzzing with activity. Ships were loaded and unloaded. Some sailed off into the ocean while others docked in. Exactly what a normal day was like.

"I wonder what Maurice is doing here?" Private said from where they were hiding behind some barrels.

"That's assuming he's still here." Kowalski muttered. He was tapping furiously at his Notepad screen, and Private watched in amusement. He remembered seeing something like the Notepad on the Internet. What did people call it…iNote or something?

"Aha, got it." Private shook himself out of his musings. Skipper was alert in a flash. "Report."

"I ran a few different scans on the area and cross-referenced the results." Kowalski turned the Notepad around so that they could all see the screen. There were twelve red dots blinking steadily on various places on map. Kowalski pointed at one. "This indicates that there might be something there that resembles Maurice. And according to this, there are twelve different locations that we would need to check."

There was a pause as everyone soaked this in.

"We'll split up." Skipper announced, again taking charge. "Private, you're with Kowalski. Rico, you're with me. We'll tackle these six. You take others." Kowalski, Private, and Rico nodded. Skipper nodded back. "We'll keep in contact with these." He held up the four earpieces with mikes that Kowalski had taken out earlier. The team wasted no time grabbing one each and putting them on. With a curt nod from Skipper, the team split up and went opposite directions.

One hour later, the Penguins met back at the barrels.

"I don't believe it." Skipper said for the umpteenth time since they've contacted each other. "Nothing. At all. Now we're back on square one. We don't even know where to look next!" He emphasized his words by hitting his fist against a nearby unfortunate barrel.

"I'm sure Kowalski'll think of something." Private said, trying to cheer up the leader. Skipper gave him a look, and Private realized what he just said. "I mean…we. I'm sure we'll think of something." He quickly corrected.

Kowalski decided to ignore the exchange and frowned at his Notepad screen. He was _sure_ he got the results right. His Notepad has never let him down before, unless…

He slapped himself on the forehead when he realized what was wrong. The rest of the team looked at him questioningly as he again began tapping at the screen. "Kowalski?" Skipper asked warily. Kowalski didn't even look up as he replied. "Sorry, Skipper. I accidentally added something I shouldn't have, so that's why there were so many results. After I fix that…"

The computer beeped.

"…There! That should do it." Kowalski showed the map to the others again. This time, there were only two dots.

"It's correct this time." Kowalski reassured when Skipper eyed the screen suspiciously. "I'm 99.9% sure of that."

"Why do I get the feeling that 0.1% is going to came back and bite us?" Skipper muttered. "Alright then, we'll stay in the same formation. Rico and I will take the one in the building. You guys take the one on the coast."

Private's eyes lit up. He _loved_ the coast! He always had so much fun there! He eagerly waited for Skipper's signal before dashing off as fast as he could.

Kowalski blinked. He quickly put away his Notepad and chased after the younger operative.

"Hey, Private! Wait!"

* * *

Skipper and Rico wasted no time getting to the place where their dot was. The dot was actually inside an abandoned warehouse. Skipper suppressed a shudder. An abandoned warehouse. That's almost never good.

They inched silently towards one of the many entrances. Pressing themselves against the wall on each side of the entrance, Skipper signaled for Rico to go ahead and look inside. Rico nodded and did as gestured.

The taller Penguin carefully stuck his head into the doorway, a hand already fingering his favorite combat knife that he had on him. He was relieved and a little disappointed when he didn't see anything.

He gave the all clear to Skipper, and the two went ahead into the metallic building.

There were rows of metal shelves that had obviously been out of use for many years. Rico, out of curiosity, wiped the surface of a shelf with a finger and was fascinated by the result. A stern look from his leader reminded him what they were here for. They split up to look through the place faster.

Skipper turned his senses up to their highest as he walked down an aisle. Sure, it's highly possible that there'd be nothing here, but he's not taking any chances.

Suddenly, he caught a sound coming from the more inner part of the warehouse. He stopped for a short second to decide whether or not he should go investigate it.

Of course, he chose to investigate.

Skipper crept slowly towards the sound. It sounded like something was being hit against at a rapid pace. There was no specific pattern to the sounds, but it was incredibly familiar. He's heard that sound before, but he just couldn't place where or when.

As he got closer to the sound, he realized that it was getting lighter. He guessed that there must be a dim light bulb on. Enough to let the user see things clearly, but not enough for anyone else outside to notice. After a few quick paces, he found where the light source was. Skipper pressed himself against a shelf and slowly peeked around the corner.

He almost jumped when his earpiece crackled to life.

"**Skipper?"**

Skipper quickly bit his lip to stop himself from cursing out loud. He put a finger to the earpiece and replied in a whisper. "I'm a little busy right now, Kowalski." He said as he finished the action of looking around the corner.

"**We've found Maurice. I think it's safe to say that your dot is just a false alarm."**

Skipper didn't reply. He was preoccupied by the realization of what the sound was.

The sound of punching a punching bag.

Wait. He thought. If that person is working out with a punching bag and turned up on the scanner along with Maurice, wouldn't that mean…

"Kowalski?"

"**Yes?"**

"What exactly did you scan for to look for Maurice?"

"**Uh…that'd be race and body-build, along side a couple of others. Why?"**

Something flew in Skipper's direction, and only years of experience allowed him to act on reflex and dodge it. He stared wide-eyed at the blade embedded where his face was a second ago. He cursed, no longer caring if he was heard or not.

"**Skipper?"**

The Penguin leader ignored the call and sprinted away from the place, cursing repeatedly in his mind. Of all the people to run into…!

"Rico! Get out of here, _now_!"

* * *

(About ten minutes ago…)

Kowalski stopped to catch his breath. He didn't know Private could run that fast! Still, the sea had always been Private's favorite body of water. He still remembered the day they first took Private to the sea. They had to drag him back after six hours of swimming.

"Kowalski!" Private called from around a corner.

"What?"

"I found Maurice!"

_Well, that was fast._ Kowalski thought with surprise as he picked up his pace and rounded the corner that was blocking his sight of Private. Sure enough, Maurice was there with the young Penguin.

"It turned out he wasn't in trouble." Private said happily. The large-boned African American man looked up at Kowalski almost sheepishly. "Geez, I didn't mean to frighten the lot of you. I mean, I _did_ tell Mort not to say anything to Julien, but I didn't know he'd cause such a big panic."

"Right." Kowalski said after a moment. He guessed that Private probably filled the older operative in. "So why did you disappear in the first place?"

"Look, I didn't disappear." Maurice replied with a frown. "I just needed some free time from Julien. Sometimes when I just can't stand him anymore, I come here. It helps clear my mind."

Kowalski nodded in understanding. He knew from some personal experiences how quickly one can tire when exposed to too much "Julien-ness". Sometimes he wondered how Maurice managed to pull it off.

"I'd better contact Skipper." Kowalski stated. Private looked up at him with and eager expression. Kowalski resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Fine, go ahead. I'm sure Skipper won't mind."

Private let out a small excited squeal and ran towards the ocean. For a moment, Kowalski thought he was going to jump in, fully clothed. But, as he watched in slight horror, Private stopped about a foot away from the shore and bent down to splash at the surface with his hand.

Kowalski let out a small sigh in relief before remembering the task at hand. He reached up to his earpiece and pressed the button.

"Skipper?"

There was a pause before Skipper's voice responded.

"**I'm a little busy right now, Kowalski."**

Kowalski frowned. Skipper was whispering. That could either mean there's trouble, or his leader has once again fell victim to his raving paranoia. "We've found Maurice. I think it's safe to say your dot is just a false alarm." He reported. Hopefully, that'll be enough to ease Skipper's mind.

There was a long pause, and Kowalski was just starting to think that Skipper had "hung up" on him when the leader spoke again. **"Kowalski?"**

"Yes?"

"**What exactly did you scan for to look for Maurice?"**

The question caught the strategist completely off guard. _What does that have to do with anything?_He thought in confusion while replying, "Uh…that'd be race and body-build, along side a couple of others. Why?"

Again, Skipper didn't reply. But this time, Kowalski heard a _twang_ sound and also heard Skipper's frantic curse.

"Skipper?" He asked worriedly. Frantic was not an adjective commonly used to describe Skipper or anything about him. When it _was_ used, it could only mean that something bad, something _very_ bad, had happened.

Kowalski could only hope that whatever it was, Skipper and Rico could hold off on their own before he found a way to drag Private away from the sea.

_**To be continued…**_

* * *

**And that's the end of that. We have the introduction of the lemurs, Roger, and the mysterious person that scares even Skipper. He's not an OC, by the way.**

**About Kowalski's computer. I imagined it to be something like a hybrid of iPad and an actual laptop, though I have no idea how that would work. Just use your imagination and make the Notepad as high-tech as you want it to be.**

**I kind of lost inspiration when I got to the part after they left Roger's, so the rest of the chapter from that point on didn't seem as well written as the previous part. And I have officially surpassed the 4000 word mark, making this the longest chapter I have ever written. And it sucks. I fail so bad.**

**Also, I have uploaded a picture of my humanized version of Skipper on dA. You can find the link in my profile if you're interested. Any comments on the picture goes on dA.**

**Again, my authoress' note is unexplainably long. My apologies. The next chapter should be out with two weeks. Again.**

**~ruth~**


	4. Chapter 3: The Chase

**Look! Chapter 3 actually made it on the Net!**

**I can't believe none of you could guess who it was. I thought I left enough clues…maybe I'm just horrible at hinting. *fails***

**Again, I'd like to thank Illyria Lives, ****Ultimate-Kowalski-Lover****, Eppo-pink-skuller-fly-fangirl-XDXDX, rosi345, MagicGoodsGenie, and Lockeroo for their reviews. Couldn't have made it without them. Thanks a million, guys.**

**And because someone asked…no, I don't take OCs. I want to stick to the original cast as much as possible. Besides, I'm worried I might screw up with the OCs and make them veer off how they were supposed to be by their respective creators. Sorry.**

**This chapter is based loosely on **_**Gone in a Flash**_** and partly on **_**What Goes Around.**_** Yes, if you've noticed, I am no longer going in order.**

**Disclaimer: If this belongs to me…well, what are you reading this story for? You're already in an alternate universe!

* * *

**

_**Chapter 3: The Chase**_

"Rico! Get out of here, _now_!"

Rico snapped up at the urgent command from his leader. He didn't hesitate as he sped toward the entrance. When Skipper gave an order in that tone, you generally did it first and asked questions later. As he neared the door, his heightened senses picked up danger and he whipped out his combat knife on reflex, successfully blocking the blade that was flying in his direction.

He quickly glanced at the small, black sharp-edged metal that was now lying on the floor. It took him about one second to realize what was happening.

_Oh no._ He thought with slight horror. _Not __**him**_.

He now understood why Skipper was so frantic. He decided to pocket the black blade before running again. He needed to find Skipper, and fast.

* * *

Kowalski was trying continuously to regain connection with Skipper. When he finally did, he almost wished he didn't.

"**What?"** Skipper demanded rather loudly. Kowalski flinched. "Is everything alright, Skipper?"

"**Sure! We're running for our lives from that 0.1% you were so unsure about, of course everything's alright!"**

"How on earth did someone that dangerous turn up on the scan along with Maurice?" Kowalski asked more out of curiosity than anything.

"**Oh, I don't know. African American, stocky body build, clean shaven head…**_**any of that ringing a bell**_**?"** Skipper yelled, causing Kowalski to wince. Realization dawned upon the scientist, and his eyes widened. "Oh."

"**Yeah, **_**oh**_**."** Skipper said.

Kowalski thought quickly. This was bad. This was really, really, bad. They needed to act. Now.

"Kowalski? What's going on?"

Kowalski almost jumped in surprise. He'd forgotten all about Maurice. This made things a little more complicated. "Maurice, we need to get out of here. Get ready while I go get Private."

"What?" The stout black man wasn't answered as the taller operative rushed off to where Private was. Maurice watched as Private pouted up at Kowalski, clearly upset that he had to go. But then Kowalski said something to him, and the boy's eyes widened considerably and he jumped up from his crouching position and ran back with the strategist. They didn't stop as they passed him. The only reaction from them was Private waving him on. "C'mon, Maurice!"

Maurice blinked before running up to catch up with the two.

"What's going on?" Maurice tired again when he neared them. Private looked back at him apologetically. "I'm so sorry you're here when this is happening, Maurice. We're going to run. A lot."

"Run?" Maurice asked, now running up alongside the two Penguins. "Don't you usually take out whoever that's after you?"

"Well, we can't do that this time because he's a-"

"Private!" Kowalski cut him off sternly. The boy quickly clapped a hand over his own mouth and winced. "Sorry."

Maurice, completely bewildered by this exchange, decided either the Penguins don't trust him, or that he just _really_ didn't want to know.

* * *

"Skipper!" Rico warned. Just in time, too, as the moment Skipper halted, another black blade embedded itself into the floor in front of him. If he had kept going, he would've been hit.

There was no time for gratitude to be shown, and the two ran on. Skipper activated the link to Kowalski again. "What's your status, Kowalski?"

"**Running."**

"Well, I wouldn't have guessed." Skipper replied sarcastically. "Who would've known that you are _running_?"

"**I meant, we are nearing the Running Point."** Kowalski clarified. **"It's the nearest rendezvous point from here."**

"Right. And you couldn't have told me that in the first place." Skipper half growled.

"**There's another thing, Skipper."**

"What?"

"**We have Maurice with us."**

It was then did Skipper remember the reason they were in this mess in the first place. He made a mental note to kill Maurice when they met up and quickly replied, "Take him with you. We can't be sure if _he_ knows only about us or the whole Secret Ops. If Maurice was captured, that could mean trouble. Rico and I will try to lose _him_. Wait for us."

"**Roger that. Kowalski out."**

Before Skipper could muse on the fact that that was the first time they've been able to end a transmission properly since this whole mess started, he was forced to jump to avoid yet another black blade. He shook his head in disbelief. "Just how many of these things does he have?"

Rico's only response was a quick shrug. He had heard the entire exchange and knew what they needed to do. The two shared a nod before simultaneously turning in the opposite direction of the Running Point.

* * *

"Can someone _please_ tell me what's going on?" Maurice asked for what felt like the hundredth time. He and the other two Penguins are now in an ally that he's pretty sure looked like a dead end. Private was about to answer him when Kowalski beat him to it.

"I'm sorry, Maurice, but Skipper made it clear he didn't want anyone not involved to know about this."

"Look, you've dragged me into running with you guys, so I'd say I'm as involved as any of you are. I think I'm entitled to at least know who it is we're running from." Maurice pointed out.

"He has a point." Private said quietly. Kowalski opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it. He repeated this about two more times before sighing. "Fine."

"Great. I'm glad you can finally trust me." Maurice said almost grimly. "Now who on earth is it that has your team running for your lives from him?"

"He could be counted as one of our enemies." Kowalski said. "But, he's not exactly our enemy, either. He's just doing his job."

"What? You mean he's like a bounty hunter?"

Kowalski smiled bitterly. "I wish he was. It would've made things much easier."

Maurice felt his head spin. If the person being a bounty hunter actually made things easier, he couldn't think of anything else more complicated.

"You see, Maurice," Private continued. "That person is a police officer."

There was a pause as Maurice blinked several times to soak in what was just said. "What?" He finally managed.

"He's a police officer, which makes it impossible for us to hurt him because then we'd be assaulting an official, which is illegal. And if you haven't noticed, we've been trying to get on the PD commissioner's good side." Kowalski explained.

"So how did he find out about us in the first place?" Maurice asked.

There was nothing but silence as the two Penguins exchanged a look.

"Actually, we don't really know." Private finally said. "All we know is that he knows about Secret Ops, and he knows particularly about the four of us."

"Skipper's not really happy about that." Kowalski added. "We've been trying to avoid him whenever we could, but he sometimes finds us on his own. Or in this case, we accidentally found him."

"Does this cop have a name?" Maurice asked.

"I've been trying to find out." Kowalski admitted. "But as of now, we know him simply as Officer X."

* * *

X still remembered the day the Commissioner called him into his office.

"_See this here, X?"_ The Commissioner had said while showing him a very blurred photo of four men standing among dozens of fallen ones. _"They're part of a group called Secret Operations. I want them found."_

"_For what crime?"_ He had asked. The Commissioner sneered. _"Vigilantism."_

X had blinked. He hadn't expected that. _"Pardon me for asking, sir, but if they're fighting the wrong, wouldn't it be better to work with them? They do appear to have the skill."_

"_No!"_ His superior had yelled. _"We stand for the law. We enforce the law. And vigilantism is against the law! I don't care if they take down the worst possible crook out there, they're doing it illegally! They're not government-funded, and that's enough to put them a good few years behind bars."_

He hadn't said anything as the Commissioner took a deep breath to calm down. _"You're a good officer, X. The best in my department, really. That's why I'm giving you the task of finding them."_ The Commissioner glared up at him. _"Don't disappoint me, X."_

"_Yes, sir."_

That had been a year ago. The following six months had been clustered with research, undercover work, and other various investigations to at the least find out the identity of the four men in the blurred photo he was given. When he finally found out, it was more of a coincidence than anything. He just happened to be nearby when the four man team took out a branch of gun smugglers. That was their first encounter.

He remembered running a clearer photo he had of the four in the PD's computer, only to find out with shock that there was no match for them in anything. Not even the most basic civilian files. You couldn't find them on any database in any country. It was like they didn't exist.

But that was it. He couldn't find out anything more about Secret Ops. He only knew that this organization was apparently made up of people who weren't supposed to exist. He didn't know anything more. He didn't even know what the names of the four men were.

There was an upside to all this. He didn't believe in fate or anything, but it seemed that for the past six months, he met the team more and more. Each time, he was able to find out a bit more about them. He now knew that they appeared to be called Team Penguin, and which one the leader was. The tallest one was very smart. The shortest one was young, but one heck of a fighter. And the scarred one was dangerous, period. Still, none of that helped him get any closer to finding info on Secret Ops. The Penguins, he found, were very careful with their words and how to use them.

When he heard their leader's voice in his private training area, he almost thought he finally lost it. But upon hearing the person's reaction to his blade gun, he knew immediately he wasn't hallucinating and gave chase. How many times do you find your target in your own quarters? It's almost too good to be true.

Now he was chasing the leader and the scarred one. He found it odd that the smart one and the boy weren't with them, but decided to worry about that later. He could ask then when he catches them. _If_ he catches them.

The two Penguins had taken the chase out of the docks and into the city, and X swore. It was nearly noon, which meant there will soon be people everywhere, either selling or buying lunch, which in turn meant that he wouldn't be able to use his blade gun openly. The fact that the two weren't wearing their usual black and white uniform didn't help. He could only blame himself for not having the transmitters with him, thought he knew the transmitters will only work as long as the Penguins didn't know they had them on them, which, he learned from experience, wasn't very long.

It didn't take more than five minutes for the first wave of people to start coming out of various office buildings and houses. Soon, the roads were filled with people and cars pushing around. The crowd pushed the Penguins out of his vision, and X frantically scanned around to see where the two had gone. He finally spotted them heading towards a subway entrance, apparently wanting to escape with the transportation.

_Not on my watch_. X thought grimly before rushing after them.

* * *

"Is he following us?"

"Yup."

"Good."

Skipper chanced a look behind him. Indeed, the black officer can be seen in the crowd behind them. Barely visible, but still there.

"Skipper!"

The Penguin leader snapped his head back at this warning, and cursed inwardly when he saw that his lack of attention in front of him caused him to miss the crowd that was now heading out of the subway. He tried to stop, but still rammed into the first few people.

"Hey, watch it!" A man told him angrily. Skipper rolled to his feet and shot them all an apologetic look before running off again. He didn't have time for this. But still, even as he ran, he could feel people glaring daggers at his back.

"You could've at least apologized!" A young woman called out a he ran past her, but Skipper chose to ignore her. The young woman glared at his retreating figure. "Jerk." She said before turning and walking away.

Skipper's eye twitched, annoyed by the comment. _If she knew I was running for my life here, she wouldn't have said that._ He thought bitterly as he caught up with Rico. The taller Penguin looked at him, concerned. "You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." Skipper waved him off. "Now let's get going before Officer X catches up with us."

Rico nodded. The two then tried to dissolve themselves into the crowd again.

A couple of feet behind them, X tried to push his way against the flow of the people. When he finally did, he quickly scanned for the two again. The worst that can happen now was if the two had gotten onto the subways, which would make it even more difficult to track them down. He was quite relieved when he saw the Penguins going up another entrance. He quickly gave chase.

Once outside, he scanned around again. This time, he saw them making their way up a fire escape. _The roof? Seems like an odd place to escape to._ Nevertheless, he went after them.

* * *

Maurice twitched in annoyance. They were still in that alley. "How long are we supposed to stay here?"

"Until Skipper and Rico get here." Kowalski replied without looking up from his Notepad.

"And we can't go back to HQ first because?"

"Because, it'll be suspicious if we came back with you but without either of them."

"Wait." Maurice narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean, suspicious?"

Kowalski winced like he was slapped. "…Nothing."

"I thought we were done with secrets." Maurice crossed his arms across his chest and sent the tall Penguin a mild glare. Kowalski did a very good act of pretending not to notice. It was Private who finally broke the silence. "We _did_ drag him into this mess with us…"

Kowalski looked up at the boy to tell him his negative answer, but as soon as he saw the look on Private's face, the words swallowed themselves. He suddenly had an urge to bang his head against something hard. Really hard. But that's not really an option right now. Instead, he put his head in his hand. "…it'll be suspicious, because we never come back from missions separated." He finally caved.

"Why don't just tell Tom that we ran into Officer X?" Maurice asked.

Again, he was met with silence. This time, both of the Penguins had uncomfortable looks on their faces. Private nervously fingered his bandaged arm, and Kowalski busied himself righting his glasses. Maurice's eyes shifted back and forth between the two before something clicked.

"…wait. Please tell me that Tom actually knows about this."

Silence. But the looks on their faces told the Lemur that he had hit the nail on the head. After a few more seconds, Private looked up at him with a sheepish smile. "I could tell you that, but then I'd be lying."

"Do I even _want_ to know the reason you're keeping this from Tom?" Maurice asked warily.

"No." Kowalski replied curtly, focusing again on his Notepad. "And that's the end of that."

* * *

The chase had taken the other two operatives and the cop to a more remote part of the city. X had run out of ammo for his blade gun, so now he could only chase after the Penguins. Rico was absolutely fine. He could do this all day if needed. Skipper, on the other hand, was annoyed. _Very_ annoyed.

"That guy doesn't know when to quit!" He said angrily. Rico hid a smirk. _Sounds familiar, no?_

"You can't escape this time, Penguins!" X yelled after them, now that there were less people around to hear it.

"Well, yeah? Remember what happened the last time you said that?" Skipper yelled back over his shoulders.

"That won't happen again!"

"You said _that_ the last time, too." Skipper muttered under his breath. Looking down the street, he saw that there was a truck coming their way. He gestured at Rico, and the taller operative caught his message. The two did a silent count to three before dashing across the street, hoping the truck would slow their pursuer down.

As it turned out, X was so focused on the Penguins that he just followed them. He didn't notice the truck until the driver blared the horn at him.

By then, it was already too late.

X's eyes widened behind the shades he had on. In that instance, he saw a good half of his life flash with the headlights. He couldn't possibly avoid it.

Tires screeched. Someone shouted. But all that was lost to him. All he could see were the headlights shining into his eyes.

_I'm sorry, Vanny._ He thought before he was sent flying through the air.

* * *

"What's taking them so long?" Private asked.

Kowalski sighed. "I'm sure they're fine, Private. You know how insistent Officer X can be. I'm sure that they just have yet to find a way to lose him."

"I don't know, Kowalski." Private said uncertainly. "I just got this feeling…like something bad happened…"

Kowalski said nothing. While Private's "feelings" weren't accurate all the time, they _had_ proven to be trustworthy in several occasions. Kowalski just hoped that this wasn't one of them.

* * *

He hit the pavement, his eyes closed.

_Strange._ X thought. _It doesn't hurt as much as I thought it would._

He opened one eye slightly, afraid of what he might see. To his surprise, there was no blood. He pushed himself up on his elbows. Oddly enough, there was no pain. Only a few sore spots from where he hit the ground.

It wasn't until he saw the Penguin leader sitting on the floor next to him, panting heavily, did he finally realize what had happened.

"You…" He said, trying to place his thoughts into sentences. "You saved me."

"You're welcome." The operative said dryly.

"Why?"

The younger man placed a hand to his chin, striking the famous thinking pose. "Hmmm…I don't know. I just figured no one wanted to see a dead officer lying in the middle of the road. Why else did you think I did it?" He replied, his voice coated heavily with sarcasm. X couldn't suppress a chuckle. "Are you always this cynical?"

"Maybe."

X chuckled again. He let his eyes wander over the scene, and saw that the scarred operative was dealing with the truck driver. They were too far away for X to make out their conversation, but it was clear that the scarred one was winning whatever argument they're having. A few moments later, the driver practically jumped into the truck and fled. The scarred one then made his way towards them.

"You okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine." Both X and the leader replied at the same time. They looked at one another before both smirking.

"Well, I guess I owe you Penguins one." X said.

"I guess you do." The leader replied.

"I think I know how to repay you."

"And I think I know what the way that you think you know to repay us is."

There was a brief silence. Then the leader suddenly stood up and offered X a hand. X looked at it for a few second before accepting it.

After they were both standing at their full height, they converted the hold into a handshake.

"Only this once." X warned.

"Believe me, officer." Skipper chuckled. "This once is more than enough." He then nodded at Rico, and they disappeared in a puff of smoke.

They didn't really need to do that, as they all knew that it didn't worked the way it was supposed to against X. But X let them go this time. It was a sign that signified the beginning of…

_Of what?_ X wondered. He wasn't sure. But he knew they weren't enemies anymore.

* * *

"Kowalski! I see them!" Private said as he stood up excitedly. Kowalski and Maurice looked up from what they were doing to kill time. Indeed, they could see the other two members of Team Penguin running in their direction. They both stood up with Private to greet them.

"Skipper! Rico!" Private called out as the two neared them. He then did the supposedly impossible task of hugging them both at the same time.

"Whoa, slow down there, Private." Skipper said with a chuckle. Rico grinned wide and ruffled the boy's hair. When it was clear that Private refused to let go, Skipper looked up at Kowalski for help. The strategist only gave a lopsided smile and a shrug that said "what you gotta do?" Maurice stood back, watching this heartfelt moment with a small smile.

It took about ten minutes to finally pry Private from his two almost-brothers.

"So what happened?" Private asked when he finally let go. "I had this bad feeling, and I was so worried that Officer X got you!"

"Well," Skipper smirked. "I don't want to go into the details, but I guess you could say that we have one less enemy to worry about."

The three that weren't at the scene looked at each other, not sure what to make of the statement. Skipper chuckled.

"You know what? Never mind. Let's just go home."

* * *

(Later that day…)

In his lab, Kowalski leaned back into his chair, frowning at his Notepad screen. He was trying to get into the NYPD database to find out more about Officer X, but he had failed. Again.

He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. Hacking wasn't really one of his strong points. He was more into physics and chemistry. Those two fields of science were enough for him to build and make what he wanted.

But there was someone he knew who could help. And getting in touch with her was fairly easy. _Why not?_ He thought as he pulled up a chat to that specific person.

**Vanessa?** He wrote. The reply was almost instant.

**What is it, K?** The reply said.

**I need a favor.** He explained.

**Of course you do. Why else would you contact me? **"Vanessa" wrote. Kowalski chuckled quietly. **Touché. I need information on someone.**

**And that would be?** She prodded.

**I need to know about a person called Officer X.**

There was a slight pause, then, **Care to be more specific?**

**All I know is that he works in NYPD and he's African American.** He wrote.

It was strange. Of all the times he had asked Vanessa for info, she had never hesitated or asked for more specific descriptions. Why was she asking now?

**Vanessa?** He asked when she didn't reply. There was another long pause before a reply finally came.

**I'll see what I can do.** The screen said.

**Thanks, Vanessa. I know I can count on you.** Kowalski wrote and ended the chat. Though he only knew this Vanessa via the Internet, he knew he could trust her. If there was anyone who can get info on almost anyone, it was Vanessa. She was one of the best hackers in the world.

Besides, letting Vanessa do the hacking gives him more time to work on his project, which was slightly behind the schedule he had set up for himself. He had a lot of work to do.

_**To be continued…

* * *

**_

**Rushed chapter is rushed.**

**But at least it's finished. Finally we have a chapter that sort of doesn't end with a cliffhanger.**

**Here we have the introduction of Officer X, "Vanessa", and another character that I'm not going to point out right now. Kudos to anyone that can find and guess correctly who this mystery character is. "Vanessa" is not an OC. She's an idea that I borrowed from another fellow writer that I'm not going to reveal until "Vanessa" gets more parts in the story. If I did, you'd be able to guess who she is, and it won't be fun. Yes, I'm twisted like that.**

**I'm sorry if the plot twist was too sudden. I just realized how long the chapter was getting, and I didn't want to delete anything, so I kind of rushed it. Hopefully, I got you all thinking that X really was hit by that truck. If I didn't…*fails again***

**On another note, arts of the rest of Team Penguin and Julien are now up on dA. Again, you can find the links in my profile. All comments on the arts go on dA unless you don't have an account there. Then you can comment on them here.**

**Yada, yada, yada…yes, I am looking for ways to make my Authoress' Note longer than it should be. *is brick'd***

**Next chapter is going to be fun. I've already planned most of it and just need to type it out. Look forward to it!**

**~ruth~**


	5. Chapter 4: Enter Marlene

**And this here is Chapter 4.**

**Two reviews. I won't lie, but this was a pretty big blow to m confidence.**

**Seeing the sudden decrease in reviews for the last chapter, I take it that most people didn't like it, and I am sincerely sorry for that. Still, I'd like to thank EppopinkfangirlXDXDXD and Medicus Serpentis for their reviews. It was really kind of them to review a chapter not liked by much.**

**I really like this chapter. It's also what I think a lot of you have been waiting for. Please enjoy reading it. It's very loosely based on various episodes that have a certain otter in them.**

**Disclaimer: The Penguins of Madagascar belongs to Tom McGrath. There, I actually said it properly for once.

* * *

**

_**Chapter 4: Enter Marlene**_

It was another normal day in the Secret Operations Headquarters. Everyone was going about their own business and there weren't any missions to be given. You could say that everything was peaceful.

For all but one, that is.

Skipper fumed as he marched down the hall, trying unsuccessfully to calm himself down. In fact, the more he thought about it, the angrier he got.

_Who does that Lemur think he is? I swear, the next time I get my hands on him, I'm gonna…_

The rest of that thought was censored because they're too gruesome. Even for a T-rated fic.

Other operatives cleared a route for the steaming Penguin leader automatically. No one in their right mind bothered Skipper when he's like this. Not even his own teammates. Once, the three tried to do the suicidal task of calming Skipper down. Doris had her hands full after that.

Said teammates were now sort of stalking behind their leader, mainly to prevent Skipper from hurting anyone unintentionally.

"How long do you think it'll last this time?" Private asked uncertainly.

"Well, judging from how he's acting now…" Kowalski winced when Skipper drove a fist into a nearby metal locker, denting it in the process. "I'd say a very long time."

Rico placed a hand to his forehead and groaned. He hated these stake outs. You couldn't do anything fun.

Suddenly, Skipper stopped walking. His three teammates halted behind him. For a tense minute, none of them moved. Then, Skipper veered off his original path and headed towards the elevator.

Private and Rico were about to follow when Kowalski stopped them. "No, guys. This is as far as we go."

"But Kowalski! What if he hurts someone wh-" Private stopped abruptly when Kowalski sent him a mild glare. "You know Skipper's better than that, Private. Besides, you know the deal we made. No one follows anyone when someone wants to spend time alone topside."

Private crossed his arms and pouted. "You three only made that deal because you actually _have_ a place to spend time alone at."

Kowalski's glare softened and he smiled. And to Private's chagrin, he reached out and ruffled the boy's hair. "You'll get your place soon enough."

* * *

The late spring wind blew into Skipper's face. Skipper took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He was still angry, and he knew the perfect place he can let out the steam.

Though he made a really big secret out of it, it was really just the rooftop of a small apartment building that he was pretty sure no one had been to for at least three years. He had found the place on one of his usual exercise run, and it had become his personal training spot ever since. There weren't any training equipment there, but Skipper still made the best of it by using it to practice his martial arts.

He liked having this place to his own. It wasn't that he didn't like having his teammates around, but he liked having a bit of privacy. Besides, he was pretty sure Kowalski already knows about this place, though he's not sure _how_ the scientist had found out.

Back to the present. Skipper couldn't suppress a smirk as he climbed the fire escape he had become so familiar with. Using some moves he had taught himself, he jumped up the last few floors in record time and leaped into the air when he reached the top, landing perfectly on the rooftop. He swept his vision across the platform, and another smirk pushed its way onto his face.

Walking over to an old wooden bench, he shrugged off his jacket and dropped it on it. He looked over the edge of the roof to make sure there was no one coming up, and once he saw that the coast was clear, he nodded to himself and went to the center of the rooftop.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, allowing himself to think of the cause of his discomfort. The second Julien's obnoxious face floated up in his mind, he felt annoyance boil up in him again.

Eyes still closed, he slid into a stance he was comfortable with. For a moment, he stayed like that, forcing himself to calm down.

Suddenly, his eyes snapped open. In one swift motion, he began to move. Punch. Punch. Kick. Spin. Kick. Kick. Punch. Block. Uppercut. Punch. Jump. Kick. Kick. Block. Slide. Roundhouse. Back-flip. Swipe. Elbow. Punch…

He continued, never slowing. He used move after move, each connected perfectly into an entire new style that only he knew. He focused on the space in front of him only. Every attack held power behind them. Not one move was wasted, each strike meant to take out the nonexistent enemy. Each step flawless, right where he wanted them to be. He was a fury of punches and kicks that no criminal would want to meet.

He focused entirely on his practice, clearing everything else from his mind. He paid no attention to his surroundings, giving the space in front of him his undivided attention. Later, he would blame that for not noticing the door to the apartment below open and someone stepping onto the platform.

He had just finished the final kick and slid back into another stance when he heard it.

"You!"

He spun around in surprise.

At the door, a young woman stood. She had a look of annoyance on her face as she pointed a finger accusingly at him. "You're that jerk the other day!"

"Jerk?" He repeated, at a complete lost of what to do. How did this girl get under his senses, anyway? How come he didn't feel her presence? Still, she looked vaguely familiar…

"Yeah, the _jerk_," She marched over to him, jabbing her finger on his shoulder, "that couldn't even _apologize_ when he runs into people!"

Suddenly, he remembered. She was the one that had tried to get him to apologize back at the subway when he and Rico were running from Officer X. He quickly dug through his memories and compared his mental image with the girl in front of him now. Yes, the same brown hair that had covered half of her face, tied into a high, long ponytail. They were the same.

"Are you even listening to me?" The girl demanded, arms now crossed in front of her chest.

"Look, I was in a hurry then." He replied like he didn't just recall the incident. "It was pretty much a matter of life and death for me."

"Oh yeah?" The girl rolled her eyes. Clearly, she didn't believe him. "What were you running from? The alligators in the sewers?"

Skipper felt his eye twitch. This girl was almost as annoying as that narcissistic Lemur! Almost.

"That's classified." He replied curtly. In a way, it _was_. He's not supposed to exist, after all.

"Classified?" The girl actually laughed. "That's the lamest excuse I have ever heard anyone come up with."

Skipper felt his eyes twitch again. Deciding it was time to regain control over the situation, he sent the girl a mild glare, "What are you doing here?"

"Me? This is _my_ place." The girl glared back. "I think I'm more entitled to ask _you_ the same question."

"Classified." Skipper said.

"Again with the classified thing? Who are they classified from, exactly?" The girl shot back at him. Skipper smirked before leaning into the girl's face, with every intention of intimidating her. "From people like you who can't keep their nose out of business that is not theirs, doll face."

Suddenly, his reflexes kick in and he jumped back, successfully avoiding a high kick that has been aimed at his head. He looked at the girl with surprise, completely thrown off guard with what just happened. The girl glared at him with hard amber eyes, anger visible in them. She leapt at him again, lashing out with punches and kicks, with Skipper dodging every single one.

"Don't." She growled between attacks. "Call. Me. _Doll face_!" She finished the last word with another high kick at Skipper's face. This time, Skipper caught it.

The girl's eyes widened in shock. Clearly, this had never happened to her before. Skipper took note at how she was able to maintain perfect balance even with one foot suspended in the air. He smirked. "So, you know karate."

"Yeah? So what?" The girl growled. Skipper said nothing, and only smirked a little wider.

Suddenly, the girl found herself staring at the sky, nursing a suddenly aching neck. She glanced up at the man she was attacking only a few seconds ago. The man had a triumphant smirk on his face. "Unfortunately for you, you _only_ know karate."

Inwardly, she flinched at how true the words are. Outwardly, she huffed and crossed her arms, looking away from him.

"Here." The man's voice suddenly softened. She stared at the hand offered to her, and, reluctantly, took it. The moment she was up though, she withdrew her hand. The man smiled amusingly at this, making her slightly uncomfortable.

"They call me Skipper." The man said suddenly. "What about you?"

The girl looked away. She wasn't sure if she should introduce herself or not. But he did it, and it was only polite to return it. Besides…

"Marlene." She finally said. She turned around and looked at Skipper in the eye. "My name is Marlene."

* * *

Afterwards, the rest of the Penguins quickly noticed the slight changes in their leader's behavior. For one, it took longer for Julien to anger him. Skipper was almost always smirking. There was also the fact that he went topside almost every afternoon. When asked, he always said he wanted to train, but the training room was occupied. The others bought it for a while. Before Kowalski pointed out that there was no one in the training, that is.

But Skipper still didn't tell them where he went or why he went. The others soon decided that since Skipper didn't seem to be doing anything bad, it'd probably be better not to pry anymore.

Two weeks after their fateful encounter, Skipper sat on the old bench, thinking about what had happened after he and the girl introduced themselves. Marlene had stated bluntly that the roof was her territory, and Skipper volunteered to vanish. He chuckled inwardly when he recalled what the girl had said.

"_You can stay, but under two conditions."_ She told him. _"One, never call me doll face again."_

Well, that one was fairly easy.

"_Two…"_ She took a deep breath, as if trying to convince herself that what she was about to say was the right thing. _"Teach me."_

And so began their training sessions. They met on the rooftop every afternoon in which they were available. If one of them couldn't make it, the other would practice old moves that they knew.

Today was one of those days. Skipper had already gone through five different sets of moves, and Marlene was no where in sight. He picked up the bottle of water he had brought with him and gulped down about half of its contents.

"How long have you been there?" He asked casually after he finished.

At first, he didn't get any response. After about fifteen seconds, a sigh was heard and Marlene stepped out from behind the slightly ajar door, a cell phone in her hand. "About five minutes." She replied sulkily. "How did you know I was there?"

Skipper gave her a pointed look, and Marlene rolled her eyes. "Right. I forgot who I was talking to. Of course you knew I was there. All hail the great Skipper."

"Thank you." Skipper said with mock authority. They both laughed.

"What were you doing with that cell phone?" Skipper asked. He was quick to notice how Marlene's hand shifted unconsciously out of his view when he asked.

"Nothing much." She said. "Just some text messages."

"Right." Skipper said. Suddenly, he was behind her. Marlene's hand grasped at the suddenly empty space between her fingers.

"Hey!" She spun around. Skipper was looking at her call phone screen with an amused expression on his face.

"You really should mute your shutter when trying to sneak a photo of someone." He suggested while turning the phone around for Marlene to see, revealing several pictures of the Penguin leader. He smirked when the girl's face reddened with what he assumed was either embarrassment or anger. It was probably both.

"You can't just look through my cell phone like that!" She protested.

"I can when it involves my privacy." Skipper said almost too cheerfully. Marlene, having no argument for that, huffed and looked away, face still red.

"Well, then, now that we got that clear, let's delete them." Skipper said, returning his attention to the cell phone.

"What?" Marlene's head snapped back at him. "You can't do that!"

"I can, and I will." Skipper replied, still using the almost too cheery tone. "And…I'm doing it."

"Wait!" Marlene jumped at him, but the leader just sidestepped, letting Marlene fall to the ground. Marlene quickly rolled to her feet, but by then it was already too late.

"Sorry, Marlene." Skipper said with a wide smirk, offering the cell phone back. "I don't like getting my pictures taken."

Marlene snatched the cell phone back from him and quickly opened it to look through her photos, just to make sure if he really did delete them.

_He did._ She thought with slight disbelief. _Every single one of them…_

She sighed in defeat and sat down on the floor.

"Why were you taking photos of me, anyway?" Skipper asked as he turned to place the bottle back on the bench, in turn not noticing Marlene's face grow a shade redder.

"I've been…talking about you to my brother. About how you were teaching me." Marlene said. "And he wanted to see who you are. I didn't want to bring him here, so I…yeah." She finished off rather lamely. Technically, it was the truth. He _did_ ask her about Skipper. And she _did_ promise that she would bring pictures. So it wasn't a lie.

Right.

Skipper seemed to buy it as he chuckled. "As much as I'm flattered that you actually talk about me, I can't have my pictures shown to everyone."

"And why not?" Marlene demanded.

Suddenly, Skipper's expression changed. He looked at Marlene solemnly. "The thing I do, Marlene…it's dangerous. If my enemies found out that you have pictures of me, they would know that you've been with me at some point. They'll do anything to get to me."

He stopped there, letting Marlene figure out the rest on her own. Marlene frowned. "It's only in my cell phone. Don't you trust me enough?"

"It's not you that I don't trust." Skipper said bluntly. "It's that brother of yours."

"Really?" Marlene rolled her eyes. "I've known him since, like, forever. He wouldn't hurt anyone."

"Well, seeing the way you were so willing to hurt me when we first met, I'd thought it was in the genes." Skipper said. He jumped up to avoid Marlene's attempt to swipe his feet out from under him. "Anyways, no pictures."

"Fine." Marlene stood up and dusted off her hands. "But, you have to teach me a new move today. It's payback for deleting my pictures."

"Don't you mean my pictures?" Skipper smirked as Marlene glared at him. "Don't rub it in, Skipper."

"Alright, alright. Let's get down to business, then." Skipper said. "Let's start with you showing me what you've got so far."

Marlene frowned. "Didn't we do that in our first lesson?"

"Well, here's the different part." Skipper smirked. "Attack me."

Marlene stared. "What?"

"Don't worry." The Penguin leader said brightly. "I'll be able to dodge all your attacks."

Marlene felt a vein pulse. _Somehow, that made me want to attack him more._

"Don't regret it." She muttered before lunging at Skipper.

She started with a fake punch, but instead brought up her knee. Skipper took one look at her fist and moved to the right slightly, avoiding the knee and the fist altogether. She spun around with a roundhouse, followed immediately by another punch. He took one step back to dodge the roundhouse and ducked down to evade the punch. Marlene growled in annoyance before launching another attack.

After ten seconds, Marlene started to get frustrated. No matter what she did, her mentor always dodged them with the least possible movements. And he did it with his hands in his pockets. And he also had a smirk on his face the entire time. None of these did anything to help with Marlene's growing frustration.

_Argh!_ She thought angrily while throwing in another move. _Why can't I even touch him!_

And it was to her surprise when a hand suddenly grabbed her own right after the thought flashed across her mind.

"Stop, stop!" Skipper said with a frown.

"Is something wrong?" Marlene asked cautiously, lowering her stance.

"Yeah, it's wrong." Skipper said. "Who taught you that move?"

Marlene blinked. "Which one?"

"The one where you spin and supposedly drive you elbow into your opponent's stomach, followed by an immediate uppercut."

"My brother. Why?"

"Well, I'm not sure what your brother was thinking when he taught you that, but you're not going to hit anyone with that."

"What?" Marlene said in bewilderment.

"All your other attacks before that were perfect, so it kind of threw me off guard." Skipper continued. "I gotta hand it to you, Marlene. If it was anyone else that wasn't me that was being attacked by you, he'd probably spend a week at Doris's. But that elbow and uppercut combo was completely out of sync. In fact, it also leaves you with a lot of openings."

"Wait, let me get this straight." Marlene rubbed at her eyes. "So you're expecting me to believe that my brother whom I trust more than anything was teaching me a move that could get myself killed?"

"Hey, you said it, not me." Skipper put his hands up in mock surrender. "You can believe whatever you want to believe, but I'm just telling you that that combo is never going to work."

"But my brother…" Marlene frowned. "He always told me that the combo is my trump card that I shouldn't use unless absolutely necessary. He demonstrated it a couple of times, and he always took out whoever he was attacking."

"Look, I'm not implying that your brother's been lying to you. All I know is that you have a move that we need to work on perfecting." Skipper stated bluntly. "Now come at me with it again."

"Okay." Marlene gave herself a mental shook and made a mental note to ask her brother later. She charged at Skipper again, and as she spun and brought her elbow forward, Skipper quickly stopped her. "Okay, stop right there."

Marlene froze her movements but still kept her stance. Skipper took hold of her elbow and lowered it slightly. "Lower your elbow a little bit like this. Try to keep it level with your shoulder. And if you can, spin a little harder. It'll add more force to the attack." He explained as he moved her arm around to show her how it was done.

"Like this?" Marlene did a quick run of what she was told.

"Yeah, that's good." Skipper nodded approvingly. "Now continue into the uppercut."

She did as instructed, and Skipper stopped her again. "When you let your fist up, make sure it's after you've completely spun around. You don't want to lose your balance here." He took hold of the elbow again and grabbed her fist with the other hand to help her understand what he was saying. Marlene focused on the movement he was leading her with, trying to get the feel of it. It was hard to change after doing it the supposedly wrong way for such a long time, but she decided that if Skipper thought something was wrong with it, then something probably was wrong with it. He's the expert, after all.

It wasn't until something warm suddenly breezed down her neck did she realize how close they were. Skipper was right behind her, one hand grabbing her elbow and the other her wrist. He was still talking, and that was the source of the air that breezed her neck. Her immediate reaction was to tear herself away from him and rub the spot where she felt the breath, all the while trying to contain the blush that was making its way unto her face.

"Marlene?" Skipper asked, a bit surprised by her sudden movement. Marlene took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. "It's…it's nothing." She said. "You were saying about the uppercut?"

Skipper gave her a look before shrugging, deciding to let it go. "Actually, I was saying that you can come at me again."

"Yeah, yeah, okay." Marlene nodded furiously, still trying to get over the creep-out feeling of Skipper's breath on her neck. "Okay." She took another deep breath and shifted into her stance. But before she could move, two different kinds of beeping suddenly sounded from both sides of the roof.

They both blinked in confusion before realizing the sound was coming from both of them respectively. Marlene dug out her cell phone while Skipper took out something that looked like an earphone.

"Uh, sorry…" Marlene said.

"Excuse me…" Skipper said at the same time. They exchanged an awkward smile before each answering their call.

"**Hey, sis, where are you? You're late for dinner."** A masculine voice came from the other end of Marlene's phone. **"Which is a miracle in itself. Marlene missing dinner, who would've known?"**

"Hey, Ant." Marlene said with a roll of her eyes. "I'm so sorry that I didn't live up to my reputations."

"**You'd better be. The cheese is getting cold. You know I don't like eating cold cheese."** He said in a playful tone to let her know he was joking.

"Whatever. I was just busy. I'm coming home now." Marlene said. "See you in fifteen minutes."

"**I do hope those are regular minutes, not Marlene minutes. Think of the cheese, sis."**

"Right. Bye." Marlene hung up with a smile. She turned to Skipper. "I'm sorry, Skipper. I'm late for dinner, and my brother doesn't like cold cheese. So I'll get going." She stopped when she saw that Skipper was still talking into the earpiece.

"_No_." She heard Skipper insist. "That was just…uh…that was just a random girl I was passing by."

A slight pause.

"_No_, I'm not meeting anyone." Skipper half hissed into the mike. "Look, I'm on my way back right now, end of discussion. Bye."

Skipper pressed the button on the earpiece and groaned. "Uh…stupid smart guy who thinks he knows everything…"

"So…I take it you have to leave now?" Marlene asked with a knowing smirk. Skipper shrugged and smirked back. "Yeah. It seems like you have to, too."

"How convenient." Marlene muttered sarcastically. "So, tomorrow. Same time, same place?"

"Naturally." Skipper nodded. They shared another smirk before saying their goodbyes and heading off in different directions.

* * *

Marlene climbed the stairs that led to the small apartment she shared with her brother. Well, he wasn't actually her brother, to be exact. But he had taken her in when she was living on the streets, and over the years she learned to love and trust him like a brother. She was certain he felt the same.

She went through her phone again, staring at the empty photo folder. She sighed as she remembered Skipper deleting them. Then she smirked.

_Luckily, I had already moved one photo into another folder before he took the phone from me._ She thought smugly as she opened the said photo file and examined it. It had a clear view of Skipper's face, showing the smirk the Penguin leader always wore. Marlene couldn't quite remember when she took this picture, but she figured it didn't matter. Ant had wanted to see what her mentor looked like, right? This should be enough.

Before she realized it, she had already reached her door. She took one glance around and quickly reached under the mat for the key. Neither she nor Ant carried the key with them. It was too troublesome, they had concluded, and decided to leave the key under the mat so that both of them could get in when either of them returned alone.

Marlene tossed the key into the air and caught it. She twirled it a few time before finally sticking it into the keyhole.

"Sis, you're home!" Her brother beamed up at her from the couch in their living room/dining room. "I was about to consult Mr. Microwave!"

"Sorry I'm late, Ant." Marlene said. She sniffed the air. "You got pizza for dinner again?"

"But of course!" Ant laughed, already holding a slice in his hand. He bit into it and chewed. Then he frowned. "Well, the cheese got cold anyways."

"Hey, I can make it up to you." Marlene said as she took her seat beside the older man. "I got the picture of the person teaching me moves."

She handed her phone over to her brother, and he took it. Ant looked at the picture for a few seconds. Although his expression didn't change, Marlene thought she saw something flash through his eyes. Was it…anger?

"You need to thank me. It wasn't easy getting a picture of him." She said, mainly to let herself focus on something other than Ant's eyes. "He made it clear he didn't what his picture taken, so I only had the chance to take one. Of course, I can't send you the photo, either."

"No, that's okay." Ant replied, his eyes still on the picture even as he gave the phone back to her. "This is all I need. Seems like a good enough guy."

Marlene rolled her eyes. "He's annoying, but I guess he's alright."

They ate the pizza in silence after that. It wasn't until they were nearly finished when Marlene spoke again.

"Say, Ant?"

"Yeah?"

She took a deep breath before finally voicing her question. "You know that elbow-uppercut combo you taught me?"

"What about it?"

"Did you…did you teach it to me…properly?" She asked uncertainly, hoping with all her heart that the answer was yes.

"Of course! Why would I teach you something that wouldn't work?" Her brother said with a laugh. Marlene inwardly sighed with relief. Maybe Ant didn't know he got the move wrong, either. Yeah, that's gotta be it.

"Marlene, what do you think about getting a tattoo?" Ant suddenly asked.

Marlene almost dropped her slice in surprise. "Me? Tattoo?" She asked incredulously.

"Yup. I bet it'll look cool on you." Ant said with a smile. "Look. It's something like this." He rolled up his sleeve to show her. Marlene quirked an eyebrow at the black design on his upper arm. "The ace of spades?"

"All of our other friends' got it." Her brother told her happily. "I was just thinking that maybe you can get one, too."

"I don't know…is it painful?" Marlene asked uncertainly.

"Since when had you let pain stop you from doing anything?" Ant replied with a laugh.

"Point taken." She said with a shrug.

"C'mon, sis. It'll be great! You'll be just like us!"

Marlene pondered the pros and cons for a while. Then she finally nodded. "Fine."

"Great! I know just the one we can go to for this…"

As Ant continued talking, Marlene chuckled and shook her head at how enthusiastic he seemed.

It's just one tattoo. That couldn't mean that much, right?

_**To be continued…

* * *

**_

**So, enter Marlene. Finally. *cheers***

**The personality change in my Marlene is pretty obvious. She's a lot more tomboyish than the original, and she's perhaps more independent, too. And I made Skipper a bit less paranoid and serious than the original. Of course this story is going to contain Skilene. I'm a fan of it, after all.**

**There are probably some of you that think the way they met is out of character. Would Skipper and Marlene really be willing to trust someone they just met **_**and**_** fought? Trust me, I asked myself that a lot of times. But I seriously couldn't think of another way for them to meet…so yeah, this was the result.**

**I really like this chapter. This is actually only the first half of what I had planned. I just kept writing and writing, and before I realized it, I already hit the 4000 word mark. So I had to chop the chapter in half. It'll get more interesting in the next chapter! I can almost guarantee it!**

**~ruth~**


	6. Chapter 5: Trust

**Okay. So I haven't updated in, like, forever. Is anyone still there? *crickets chirp***

…**No? I thought so.**

**Anyway, there's a good reason for the lateness. I had so many things going on at school, and amid all the projects, tests, papers, and finals, I had hit a writer's block. No, scratch that. I didn't just **_**hit**_** a writer's block. I rammed/crashed/slammed into it so hard that I left a nice, detailed, ruthc93-shaped dent on it. Amazing, huh?**

**Oh yeah, and I've just recently caught the flu. The world must hate me.**

**Anyway, I'd again like to thank Illyria Lives, ****Absolutechimera****, EppopinkfangirlXDXDXD, ****2 be loved****, and ****Shiona Acitiu**** for their reviews. And thank you to all who were willing to wait. It's winter break for me now, so I should be able to update more frequently. Should.**

**Anyways, this chapter continues where we left off. Hope you'll enjoy it!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own POM. But it'd be totally awesome if I did.**

* * *

_**Chapter 5: Trust**_

_(Five Days Later)_

"What is it that you wanted to show us, Kowalski?" Private asked the scientist excitedly. Kowalski had called the others into his lab, saying he wanted to show them something. Skipper was anxious, though, but he did his best to hide it.

"Do you remember that device we brought back with us a little over a month ago?" Kowalski asked as he walked over to one of the many counters. The other members confirmed with nods and verbal replies.

"I was playing around with the parts and got some pretty interesting results. Rico, I think you'll like these." He picked up a pair of knife and handed them to the silent operative. Rico took them and examined them in interest while Kowalski continued. "I was able to mold the alloy from the shell of the device into these knives. If you would recall, I had said that the alloy is stronger that titanium."

He picked up another item. It looked like a pipe. "Now, this is a pure titanium rod, completely solid. Rico, I'm going to swing it at you, and I want you to block it."

"Block?" Rico frowned. A solid titanium rod, he learned from experience, would easily break any knife he used. He must have lost at least a dozen knives to it. But as Kowalski nodded, he decided that if the scientist said it was fine, all he could do was trust him.

He got into a defensive stance as Kowalski swung the pole at him in what he suspected was full force. He didn't even think as the hands holding the knives shot up in reflex to block the weapon. But, instead of shattering upon impact like he expected, the knives held. He was pushed back an inch due to the force, but the knives held.

Rico blinked in surprise. He stepped back to check the knives and found that they were as good as new. There were no dents, no scratches that indicate that they had just blocked a titanium pole. Rico felt his lips tug into a satisfied smile.

"That's not all." Kowalski said. "Rico, think fast."

Rico's hands moved before his eyes registered something flying towards him at an alarming speed. Without thinking, he lashed out at the object and swung the blades at it in full force. To his surprise, the object that he now recognized as the titanium pole clattered to the floor in three separate pieces. He stared first at the pieces, and then at the knives he held. The blades were not chipped.

Realizing what this meant, his lips pulled into a wild grin.

"I've tested them a few times, and I can assure you that those knives can slice through virtually any solid object." Kowalski concluded. Rico nodded and offered the knives back, but the strategist shook his head. "I want you to keep them, Rico. You'll be able to use them better than I ever can."

Rico's eyes fired up with excitement as he twirled the knives in a way only he could. "Thanks."

"Impressive." Skipper commented. They watched as Rico began pulling out other knives to compare them to his newest additions. "You got anything else?"

"Well, there's _this_."

Skipper tuned out whatever the scientist said after that, and instead glanced at the illuminated numbers on Kowalski's Notepad, which was lying on a nearby counter. It was already past 1500 hours. Marlene must already be there by now.

At the thought of the strong-willed girl, Skipper frowned inwardly. She had been acting a little off lately. He couldn't tell exactly what was off, but the feeling was there nonetheless. He knew it couldn't be something he did, because when he asked Marlene about it, the girl had blinked and replied that she didn't think she was acting any different. Skipper could only assume that it was his own paranoia that went a bit overboard.

"Skipper?"

Private's concerned voice brought the Penguin leader out of his thoughts. He looked up to see all three of his teammates staring at him in concern.

"Skipper, are you feeling alright?" Private asked.

"Of course." Skipper replied briskly. He noticed Kowalski's eyes narrow at him. He stared back. "Why wouldn't I be?"

The tension lasted about 2 seconds before the taller operative turned away.

"Anyways, that's it for now." Kowalski said as if the exchange between them didn't happen. "You can go ahead a try more with those knives, Rico." He said with a slight nod. Rico nodded back carefully and turned to the youngest among them. "Private, wanna help?"

The British boy's eyes lit up at the thought of seeing Rico practice his skills. "Of course!" He replied cheerfully before following the older operative out the sliding doors.

There was a short period of silence before Skipper spoke up. "Well, I'd better get going, then." He said as he started to walk out of the lab.

"If you see Julien, can you tell him to get over here? He left something here the last time he decided to invite himself in."

"Ringtail?" Skipper frowned. Then he shrugged and continued out the door. "Sure, I'll see if I can find hi-"

He stopped abruptly when a hand suddenly closed on his shoulder. He glanced back over his shoulder at the only other person in the room. The scientist's face showed a mixture of triumph and…sadness?

"What?" Skipper demanded. Kowalski looked at him solemnly, "Skipper. Team Lemur was sent on a mission just yesterday."

_They were?_ The thought flashed through his mind before he could stop it. But he kept his face expressionless.

"But I guess it's fair that you couldn't have known. You weren't there." Kowalski continued, his grip on his leader's shoulder tightening. "It's almost humorous, though. You used to be the first one to know when a team is sent out."

"Are you implying something?" Skipper asked suspiciously.

"Since I know lying to you wouldn't help with anything, I'll get straight to the point." Kowalski replied. "Maybe you should take some time off from your topside training.

"Right." Skipper nodded, unconvinced. "Let me guess, Tom set you up to this."

"We're all worried." Kowalski said, ignoring the accusation altogether. Skipper shook his head with a chuckle. "Kowalski, I've known you for what, seventeen years?"

"Sixteen years and eleven months." The scientist corrected automatically. He decided to leave out the days and hours.

"Sixteen years and eleven months." Skipper repeated. "But the point is I can tell when you're lying."

"I wasn't lying." Kowalski defended. "We _are_ worried."

"And Tom _didn't_ set you up to this?"

Kowalski didn't answer, but Skipper knew he hit the mark. He sighed. "And you two even managed to get Rico into this. Didn't I already say I'm fine?"

Again, the strategist didn't answer. Skipper shrugged out of his grip and walked forward. "And now that we got that clear, I'll be on my way."

He didn't take more than two steps when Kowalski spoke again.

"Why would you trust that girl like that? It's not like you."

Skipper froze mid-step. Immediately, the tension in the lab skyrocketed. It was so thick got not even Rico's new set of knives couldn't have cut through it.

"Kowalski…" Skipper looked back at his long-time friend with icy eyes. "You haven't been monitoring me, have you?"

The strategist looked back at him, the determination in his eyes unwavering. "There's something you need to know about her, Skipper."

"Don't." Skipper growled. He turned back to the door and marched through it

"Skipper, wait!" Kowalski called after him and grabbed his arm. "This is impor-"

He was cut off when Skipper used one swift move to twist out of his grip and grab his collar, slamming him against the wall in the hallway. He grunted in pain and looked at his friend in shock.

"_Don't._" Skipper repeated, this time much more intense than before. As the ice-cold eyes glared at him, Kowalski felt something run up his spine. It was an emotion he hadn't felt toward his friend in a very long time.

_Fear_.

Skipper kept his hold for five more seconds before letting go. Kowalski slid down and leaned heavily against the wall as he watched the Penguin leader disappear down the hall, still half-shocked about what just happened. He placed a shaking hand to his own chest to try and control his hurried breaths.

After a full minute, he was finally able to bring himself to stand without shaking. Suddenly, he was aware that he wasn't alone.

Doris looked at him with shock, confusion, and concern. One didn't need to ask to know she had witnessed the entire ordeal. Hesitantly, she asked, "Kowalski… is…is everything alright?"

For a moment, he didn't answer, partly because he wasn't sure what the answer was. Then he sighed. "Yeah. Everything's just perfect."

* * *

Marlene sighed as she leaned against the low wall that prevented her from plummeting to her death. She glanced at the time on her cell phone and groaned.

_He's __**so**__ dead when he gets here._ She thought angrily. _Where is he, anyways?_

Unconsciously, her hand went to rub her upper left arm. When she realized what she was doing, she frowned and rolled up the sleeve to look at the newest addition to her skin.

The pitch black ink of the spade stared back at her.

_Five days._ She thought incredulously. _It's been five days, and it still doesn't feel right to have this on me._

Ant had assured her that the feeling wasn't anything out of ordinary. He had even said that it'd be weird if she didn't feel anything at all. But five days?

During the five days she did her best to ignore the uncomfortable feeling, but she still found herself unconsciously trying to cover the tattoo up. She must have done a pretty good job, because Skipper hadn't asked her about it yet. That, or he might have simply decided to ignore it.

She gave a frustrated sigh. Normally, she would've just practiced on her own. But this time she needed the black-haired man to appear. What's taking him so long?

She stared at the dummy they had put up three days ago. She liked practicing with the dummy. At least like this, she could actually _hit_ something. Suddenly, an idea hit her. Bending down, she picked up a small piece of the coal that had been long since forgotten and wrote her mentor's name on the face of the dummy. She then added the widow's peak and emphasized the flat chin.

Marlene took a step back to observe her work. Then she threw the coal aside and began attacking the dummy. With each punch and kick, she imagined it actually hitting the Penguin leader. Strangely enough, doing so brought her a strange sense of satisfaction.

"Hah." She said triumphantly and finished it with a powerful roundhouse to the head. "Take _that_!"

Unfortunately for her, she had put too much power into the kick. The straw head flew off the dummy and, even more unfortunately for her, stopped abruptly as it was caught by a hand. A half-gloved hand.

Marlene fought the urge to bang her head against the wall as Skipper turned the ball of straw around and saw the markings she had added earlier.

"Hmm. I didn't know you hated me that much." Skipper commented with an amused smirk. This time, Marlene fought the urge to jump off the roof.

After that, Skipper apologized about being so late. Marlene decided that staying angry at him wouldn't really help with anything. Especially if she wanted what she was going to do next to succeed.

"Fine, I forgive you." She said with a huff. "Anyway, there's a reason why I was actually waiting for you."

"Really?" Skipper asked with mock surprise as he walked over to the rest of the dummy and placed the head back on.

"Yeah. I found this other place that I think seems good enough for us to train at. I was thinking maybe you can go take a look at it." Marlene said. "Of course, if you don't like it, we can still come back here." In reality, it was Ant who had stumbled upon that place when they went out to buy various daily needs. Ant had brushed the place off, saying that it's not worth anything. Marlene figured her surrogate brother wouldn't be returning anytime soon.

"A new place, huh?" Skipper thought about it. It wouldn't hurt to find another place to train. It could also get Kowalski off his back for a while. Besides, he knew he could trust Marlene, since…

"Sure." Skipper replied with a shrug. "So where is this place?"

Marlene hid a smile. "C'mon then. I'll show you."

* * *

A few minutes later, they were standing in front of an old warehouse.

"So, is this the place?" Skipper asked.

"Yeah. Found it this morning." Marlene replied.

They stood there for a while, staring at the warehouse in silence. Finally, Marlene shrugged. "Well, let's go inside and take a look."

Skipper nodded, and they both made their way towards the door. Skipper held the door open for Marlene before stepping in himself.

The moment he was inside, however, all of his internal alarms blared like crazy.

_Something…something isn't right…!_

Skipper clenched his fist. What on earth was this? Why did this feel so…so…_wrong_? This was the first time he's felt like this around Marlene. Why now?

"Skipper? You're acting weird." Marlene said as she looked at him.

Skipper shook his head. "Nah, I'm fi-"

He stopped abruptly as he caught sight of something black showing underneath the girl's sleeve. Something that stood out in stark contrast against her pale skin. Without thinking, he reached out, grabbed the arm, and rolled up the sleeve.

"Hey!" Marlene objected. But he didn't hear her. All he could do was stare at the black marking on Marlene's arm.

The ace of spades.

_No…no! It can't be!_ His mind shouted. His hand unconsciously tightened around the arm, earning a wince from the girl.

"Skipper? What's the deal?" She demanded.

"You…" Skipper said slowly, willing his voice to be as steady as his chaotic mind would let him. "You're one of them?"

"What?"

The leader was given no time to answer as a commanding voice suddenly sounded throughout the entire warehouse.

"_Get him!_"

In a split second, the once deserted warehouse was suddenly full of people. It didn't take long for Skipper to realize that not only were the people armed with either blunted or sharp objects, they were also charging at _him_. For the first few seconds he was able the react in time and make sure none of them got to him or Marlene. But the stampede continued, and soon, Marlene was pushed out of his sight.

He cursed as he fended off some more attackers and tried to look for Marlene at the same time. But there were simply too many of them. He'd take down one of them, and three would take his place. Eventually, he was overpowered and forced to his knees. At least a dozen hands restricted his arms, and he could feel at least three knees pressing into his calves, making it impossible for him to move.

"We got him, boss! We got him!" He heard someone shout. He looked up to see the mob clearing a way for someone as they walked towards him. A man that looked a bit older than him stopped in front of him.

"Well, lookie here. It really is you!" The man said in a cheerful tone. "And I was so worried that we might've mistaken."

"You!" Skipper growled at him. He remembered this person. They've met before. They've met quite a lot of times, actually, but neither cared enough to learn the name of the other. They looked at each other, one with an all-too-bright smile, and one with a heated glare.

Throughout the chaos around them, another figure suddenly pushed their way into the circle the mob had formed around them.

"Skipper!" The figured called. Skipper's eyes widened. He had almost forgotten about her. Marlene looked at him at first, and then she laid her eyes at the man standing between them. Her expression changed to one of confusion.

"What…what's going on?" She asked.

The man smirked as he walked over to her. "Ah, I'm so glad you were able to make it, Marlene."

Skipper's head spun. He didn't want to believe it. But the man's next words confirmed his suspicions.

"We couldn't have caught him without you leading him here, you know." The man draped an arm over her shoulders. "I owe you one, sis."

_What?_ Marlene thought frantically. She looked over at Skipper, hoping that he could see she didn't know this was going to happen. She winced inwardly when she saw Skipper's eyes showing a mixture of hurt, sadness, and anger. He looked away.

"No, Skipper, I-" She tried to call out to him, but Ant cut her off. "Take him out." He ordered.

Before Marlene could blink, she felt something whiz past her, and Skipper suddenly grunted in pain and slumped over.

"_Skipper_!" Marlene yelled, fearing the worst. She struggled against her brother's hold, but Ant held on firmly.

"Hey, hey, relax! He's just unconscious, that's all." Ant assured her. Marlene fought back tears as she slowly ceased her struggles. "Ant…why?"

"It's not like I like doing this, you know. But hey, he's practically on the very top of our 'capture on sight' list."

"Our?" Marlene repeated.

Ant chuckled. "I haven't properly introduced you to this, have I?" He snapped his fingers, and the other underlings moved to carry the Penguin leader's unconscious form away.

"You see, Marlene, I'm part of something called The Aces. And, well, we're not exactly on the right side of the law."

"You mean, like a gang?" She asked hesitantly.

"Oh, it's far more than that. You can almost say we're a criminal organization." Ant smiled. "And, from this moment on, you're one of us."

Marlene took a step back warily. "No…I'll never…I can't…" She stammered, trying to find the right words.

"Well," Ant shrugged. "You don't really have a choice, you know."

Marlene's head snapped up at him in shock. "Wh-what do you mean?"

"That tattoo you've been trying so hard to hide, what do you think it stands for?"

Her hand flew up to finger the tattoo on reflex. She gasped lightly as realization dawned on her. "No…"

"Yes." Her brother replied bluntly. "As long as you bear that mark, you belong with The Aces. Oh, and don't even think about trying to remove it. It won't work. Believe me, I've tried. More than once."

Marlene sighed with relief inwardly. She knew it. Ant must've been forced to join, too. He wouldn't join something like this voluntarily.

"Anyways, c'mon." Ant offered her a hand. "It's time to show you one of our bases."

Marlene hesitated. But she soon realized that it wasn't an offer.

In the end, she had no choice but to accept the hand.

* * *

Skipper woke up feeling like he just got hit by a train.

It didn't take long for him to remember what had happened, and he quickly took a look around him.

He was in a holding cell that looked more like a large cage than anything, with on side built into the wall he's leaning against. The room that contained the cage was completely barren, with no openings except for a single door. Heavy cuffs wrapped around his wrists and were chained to the wall. The only parts left of his Penguin uniform were the pants, shoes, and the black tank top he had worn underneath the white T-shirt.

_They even took the belt._ He thought in annoyance. The belt contained most of his means of escape, but The Aces clearly knew about that. On the bright side, they _only_ knew about that.

Reaching down to the sole of one of the shoes, he pulled out a thin wire. He never thought he'd get the chance to use it, since Kowalski and Rico usually did the lock picking. But now, he's alone.

_Well, I'm not Kowalski or Rico, but I might as well give it a shot._ He held onto the wire with his teeth and slowly lowered the end into the hole on the cuffs.

After five full minutes, Skipper began to lose patience. Kowalski and Rico always made it look so easy. Frustrated, he leaned back onto the wall rest his jaws.

Suddenly, the door opened.

"Hey, look who's awake!" An all too familiar voice said. Skipper glared at him as Ant closed the door behind him.

"What's with that face, Skippy? It's not like we're mortal enemies." Ant then gasped dramatically. "Oh, right. We _are_ mortal enemies."

Skipper froze for a split second. Then he growled. "Don't you _dare_ call me that!"

"What? Oh, you mean Skippy?" Ant smiled almost innocently. "And why not, _Skippy_?"

By then, the brunet had already made his way into the cage. Skipper scowled, both at Ant's taunting and the way he spun the key with one finger.

Suddenly, without a warning, Ant's fist flew at his face. The drug's after effects were still present, making Skipper unable to react in time. He grunted as the fist hit his face with enough force to make him black out for a few seconds.

"Ha. You wouldn't believe how long I've been waiting to do that." Ant said with a satisfied laugh. Skipper blinked repeatedly, trying to clear the stars from his vision.

"I'd love to have you to myself for a few more hours, but alas, a bigger show awaits you." He said with a big smile, like he had just announced the greatest news of the day. "Wouldn't want you to miss that, now would we?"

Skipper glared, refusing to say anything. Ant's smile only got wider. "Better prepare yourself, _Skippy_."

And with that, he relocked the cage and left the room.

Skipper let out a sigh and hit the back of his head against the wall behind him in frustration.

_I never should have trusted her_. He thought bitterly. Sure, he had a good reason to, but, look where that got him. He had trusted her, and yet…

_I'll never make that mistake again._

He smirked wryly as he recalled the incident from early today.

_Is this what you tried to warn me about, Kowalski?_

_**To be continued…**_

* * *

**Ah…cliffhanger. Again. Wow am I evil.**

**This chapter is relatively shorter than the one before, but I thought it was a good place to stop. Again, o evil me. XD**

**I actually planned this way before I started writing. It was one of the scenes that inspired the entire story. How many people did I scare with this?**

**You know, I didn't intend for Skipper and Kowalski's argument to end on such a tense note. You know how the story sometimes ends up writing itself? Yeah, that's what happened there. I kinda like how it turned out, though. It brings out more emotions when Skipper realized that Kowalski was right.**

**One reader was sharp enough to figure out that Ant was part of The Aces. Let's give it up for ****Shiona Acitiu****! As a reward, I'll sketch you whatever POM related art you want. Just not the animal forms. Because I seriously can't. XD**

**Some other arts are up, too! Check them out in my profile!**

**Well then, until next time! Which hopefully won't be another seven weeks later. *is brick'd***

**~ruth~**


	7. Chapter 6: Turmoil and Tranquility

**Look! I'm back! YES! I know that there are a lot of people waiting for this, and I'm happy that I can finally say, WAIT NO MOAR! XD**

**Anyway, first off, I want to thank a reader. Since he/she decided to be an anonymous reviewer (darn it!), I couldn't reply to him/her the way I want to. He/She did say I can reply to him/her at the beginning of the chapter, but I figured that that'll take up too much space. So, I'm leaving my reply in the profile. See you there, The One Whose Reviews Are Long!**

**Also would like to thank **_**Shiona Acitiu**_**, **_**Illyria Lives**_**, **_**Absolutechimera**_**, **_**Le-AwEsOmE-One**_**, **_**EppopinkfangirlXDXDXD**_**, **_**Beastial Moon**_**, and **_**Jazmin**_** for their reviews! Thanks to you guys!**

**And without further ado, the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own…wait, do people even read this?

* * *

**

_**Chapter 6: Turmoil and Tranquility**_

Marlene stared out the window. It was raining. She watched as drops of water attacked everything outside. People huddled under what little dry space the few tents offered, doing everything they can to avoid the wetness. A bird caught in the rain tried its best to fly to the nearest branch. It was failing.

She thought about everything that had happened in the past few hours. She thought about Ant's words. She thought about the tattoo. She thought about Skipper. She remembered his face the last time she saw him.

It hurt to know that he really thought she was somehow part of this. Part of what Ant called The Aces. Ant had gone through the trouble of giving her a tour of this "base". It was really just another warehouse on the side of the city. He had made sure that everyone knew she was his sister. Marlene figured he must be in a pretty important position, because everyone else in here that saw him looked either respectful or fearful. Now she was standing in what Ant called his "office". It was the only room that could be locked from the inside in the entire base.

Ant had said that there was something he needed to take care of and left Marlene alone in the room. She wasn't really surprised by the great amount of trust he placed on her, but was somehow uneasy that he didn't even mention anything about what would happen if she tried to leave. It was as if he just assumed that she wanted to be part of this.

Did she?

She fingered the switchblade Ant had given her and leaned back against the old desk near the window, one of the only furniture in the room beside the chair and a beat-up couch to the side of the room. She tried to think even as her brain stormed with so many questions and uncertainties that she was afraid she might pass out from hyperventilation. On one hand, she knew what this group was doing was wrong. She knew that there was really no way she could do any of the things that Ant had showed her. Her conscience won't let her.

But on the other hand, she knew there was no way she could betray Ant. It wasn't that she wouldn't, it's because she _can't_. She couldn't bring herself to turn her back on the one that had become her only family over all the years. He had cared for her. Raised her. Helped her when she fell. And she trusted him. She _still_ trusts him. She still couldn't really grasp the fact that Ant was part of something this big.

There must be a reason he's in here, she decided. She couldn't imagine him joining something like this by his own will. He must have been forced somehow. Maybe the people here threatened him. Or maybe they threatened to hurt _her_. Either way, it must have been something that left Ant with no other choice than to join. Like her.

_Of course_. She realized. He didn't say anything about the consequences of leaving because he _wanted _her to leave. To get out while she still could. It might be too late for him, but she still had a chance. A chance to set things right.

The bird finally reached its branch, away from the downpour in the safe haven of leaves.

Marlene smiled at the sight. Then she put the switchblade away, turned, and walked out of the room, a bit more confident than before.

She knew what she had to do.

* * *

Kowalski pursed his lips as he typed furiously at the supercomputer in the Tech Room. A person that looked notably younger than the strategist stood by him, frowning.

"You know, you can just let me handle this. It'll be much faster." The boy said with slight impatience while fingering the large headphones that hang around his neck.

"No." Kowalski stated firmly. "I need to do this. Besides, I could use the practice."

"Well, I can't really argue with that." The thinner of the two shrugged. He chewed on his bubble gum a few times before blowing a bubble, letting it loose with a loud _pop_. He watched as Kowalski worked. "You're right. You really _do_ need the practice."

Kowalski winced. "Coming from you, it's a bit different."

They fell into silence. The boy blew another bubble. _Pop_.

He then ran a hand through his dirty blond hair in annoyance. "You're my brightest. You're even better than her. But I swear, the day I find one that can actually surpass me, I'd already be in a lab somewhere, dissected to find my secret."

Kowalski's steady typing faltered ever so slightly. "Don't say that." He said seriously. "You know it'll never happen if Tom could help it. If _we_ could help it."

"You don't know that." The blond said darkly.

Silence settled between the two again. After a few seconds (and another _pop_), Kowalski sighed. "Why are you always so pessimistic?"

"You'll be, too, when you've lived through as much as I did." He replied as he sat down on a stool. His electric blue eyes watched the screen as Kowalski's commands pulled out window after window.

_Pop._

"So, what're you searching for, anyway?"

"A certain low-life who doesn't know when to listen." Kowalski muttered darkly. The blond raised an eyebrow, having connected the dots immediately. "Does he know you call him that?"

"You'd think," Kowalski continued, ignoring the question altogether. "You'd think, that after all these years, he'd listen to me at least _once_. But no, he's more upset that I've been monitoring him. Okay, so maybe I shouldn't have been doing that, but I happened to come across something important _because_ I monitored him. But when I try to warn him, he went all mighty leader on me and left without hearing what I had to say. Not even when that fact might _cost him his own life!_"

"Hey, go easy on my keyboard." The boy said with an amused look. Kowalski had been adding force into his fingers as he ranted on, and by the time he had finished, he was typing so hard that the whole desk rattled. Kowalski blushed in embarrassment and quickly adjusted his typing back to normal (well, normal for him, anyway). "Sorry."

_Pop_.

"So, am I the only one you rant to?" The short boy asked. Kowalski's typing faltered again. "C-come again?"

"I've been asking around, and apparently no one besides me has ever seen this side of you. Not even that low-life you just mentioned." He replied slyly. He's going to enjoy this.

The black-haired operative coughed and instead of replying, he focused on the screen before him. His companion watched on in amusement.

_Pop._

"You find him yet?"

"No." Kowalski muttered. "He left his earpiece in our room. Must've gone topside right after our argument. His belt isn't responding, which is disturbing all by itself."

"Whoa-ah, wait." The other straightened. "What do you mean, his belt isn't responding?"

"He might have just taken it off." Kowalski replied uneasily, inwardly kicking himself for his habit of thinking out loud. "Or it might have short-circuited. Or malfunctioned."

The blond glared. "One, you and I both know he never takes the belt off without a reason. Two, I designed them to be waterproof. You should know that. Three, _nothing_ I designed malfunctions. _Ever_. So _move_."

"But-"

"I. Said. _Move_."

Kowalski complied. The skinny boy positioned himself in front of the keyboard and cracked his knuckles. "So, not responding, are we? We'll see about that."

And with that, he began typing at a speed that made Kowalski's typing seem normal.

"Didn't you say to go easy on your-"

_POP_.

"Right. Shutting up now."

* * *

Marlene took a deep breath. She's pretty sure this was where Ant had said they kept their "guest". If nothing else, there was also the fact that this was the only room with guards. Not that they looked like guards. Just two kids with a bit overdose of leather, chatting cheerfully. One even got a few more tattoos to try to look menacing. But the ribs told the real story.

She walked up to them, and the two stopped their conversation. They looked warily at her as the one with the tattoos stood up straight and attempted a sneer at her. "What're you looking at?"

She glared. Tattoos' confidence obviously dwindled, but he still stood his ground. "What does it look like, kid? I want to see the prisoner." Marlene inwardly winced when referring to Skipper as the prisoner.

"Sorry." The other one with blond hair shook his head. "No can do. Mr. Antonio said no one goes in or out."

_They call Ant by his full name?_ Marlene thought with slight disbelief. She hadn't heard anyone refer to her brother by that name in a really long time. These kids obviously fear Ant more than they would let on. _Well then, let's try another way_.

She hardened her glare and straightened her back. "You two punks obviously don't know who you're talking to."

They stared. Then Tattoos' eyes widened. "Wait a minute, isn't she Mr. Antonio's…"

Blondie's eyes widened, too. Marlene inwardly rejoiced that her plan was actually working. "That's right, brat, I'm his sister. If you don't want to have a run in with _Mr. Antonio_ himself, I'd suggest you let me in. Now."

The two exchanged a nervous glance with each other. Marlene tapped her foot in what she hoped was an impatient manner. "I'm waiting." She warned.

It didn't take long for the two to come to the conclusion that messing with Mr. Antonio's sister isn't a wise idea, and within two minutes she was allowed access to the door.

She inwardly prepared herself as she pushed the door open, but her stomach still churned at the sight of Skipper locked up before her. He had a few bruises on him, but the most noticeable one was the one on his left cheek.

Said operative glared up at her from his position against the wall. "What do you want?"

A half of Marlene wondered how he can seem so intimidating even when locked up and chained to the wall, while the other half felt hurt to find out that he really didn't trust her.

Marlene gulped and made sure that the door was closed behind her before taking a step forward. "Look, Skipper, I-"

"Save your apology. I don't need it." Skipper scowled and looked away.

She clenched a fist in frustration. Walking up to the cage door, she knelt down in front of the bars. "Skipper, please, listen to me. I didn't know."

"You expect me to believe that?" He shot her another heated glare, making Marlene flinch back. She always knew that Skipper would be terrifying when enraged. Heck, he was terrifying enough when annoyed. But to actually be on the receiving end of the Penguins leader's rage was a whole other story. She had never seen him like this.

"Skipper, _please_." She begged, sagging down into a sitting position. "You _have_ to believe me, I didn't know Ant was going to set a trap there! He used me. I wasn't in on it! If…if I knew that was going to happen…I would've…I wouldn't have taken you there. I would've done everything to make sure that-"

"_Enough!_"

Marlene snapped her mouth shut so quickly that she bit her tongue. The force behind that one word was enough to make her jump. She looked at the captured operative with shock.

"Don't you have anything important to do?" Skipper said quietly after a moment of silence. His head was bent low, hiding away his face. "What would your _brother_ say if he knew you're here?" He spat the word "brother" like it was venom.

Marlene flinched and looked away, feeling more ashamed than anything. Why wouldn't Skipper believe her?

"Just…leave."

Marlene looked back at him hesitantly. "Skipper…"

"_Leave_."

This time, Marlene couldn't even try to mask the hurt. She looked at him pleadingly, but his head was still bent down, making it impossible for her to meet his eyes. She bit her lip in frustration and distress. Deciding it was probably too late to do anything now, she began to turn away.

But then she saw his hands. The operative's hands were clenched tightly, his knuckles already white. And, ever so slightly, they were shaking.

_There's still hope._ She realized. Marlene turned back to him. She can't give up now. She was so close. She just needed something to convince him.

But what?

Suddenly, an idea popped into her mind. It really was the only thing she could do to prove her innocence.

_Here goes nothing.

* * *

_

Skipper was exhausted.

He was _mentally_ exhausted.

Since the moment Marlene stepped into the room, he had done everything he could to make it clear that he didn't trust her. He had been tricked by her. There was no reason for him to trust her. Hell, her brother was the head of everything he was against. There were a lot of reasons why he shouldn't trust her again.

So why, _why_ did every inch of his instinct tell him otherwise?

Skipper had lived a dangerous life. And he believed that the only reason he was still alive now was because he had listened to his instinct. And it had proved to be right all those time. He had never gone against it.

That is, until now.

Now his mind was at war with itself. Instinct said that everything she said was true. Logic said it won't be wise to trust someone who had already betrayed him. Logic also said that it's not wise to trust someone who was related to the enemy. But instinct was louder.

That's why he told her to leave. If she left now, it'll save him from making the same mistake again. It'll save him from trusting her again.

But instead of hearing the sound of her getting up and leaving, he heard a small _twang_ sound.

Glancing up, he saw that it was the sound of a switchblade. He stared at the weapon in confusion.

"What are yo-! _Marlene!_" He cut himself off and called out when the girl swiftly slashed the blade across the tattoo on her arm.

Marlene looked up at him, eyes shining with determination. The message was clear.

_I am not one of them._

In that instance, instinct overrode logic completely. Without thinking, Skipper sprang up from his sitting position and rushed forward, his eyes fixed on the gash the girl had inflicted on herself. He cursed when the length of the chain came short before he was anywhere near the bars, pulling him back. Still, he moved forward as much as he could. Using what little space he was left with, he twisted his hands down and managed to tear a piece of cloth off his tank top.

He cursed again when he realized a bit too late that he won't able to treat the wound himself.

"Take this." He tossed the cloth towards the girl, but it only reached near the bars. "Stop the bleeding."

Marlene looked at the cloth hesitantly. Skipper gritted his teeth, "Take it!"

Without another word, Marlene quickly reached through the bars and took the cloth. And without wasting another second, she did what she was told.

Skipper allowed himself to relax only after he was sure that the wound was properly bandaged. He sat back with a sigh.

"Idiot." He said sternly after a period of silence. "What were you thinking?"

Marlene smiled almost sheepishly. "I wasn't."

"Idiot." Skipper said again. But this time, his tone softened, and they shared a small laugh. Sure, it had been stupid of Marlene to hurt herself, but now everything was clear. Heck, he was kind of glad that Marlene did it. Instinct was right. Again.

"You'll have to get away from here." Skipper said quietly after the laugh. "The Aces don't exactly like their members openly baring a mark of defiance."

"I know." Marlene said sulkily. The thought had hit her after she did it, and she kind of regretted not thinking it through. "But I don't have anywhere to go."

It was true, Skipper realized. The rooftop wasn't safe, as it was too out in the open. And she certainly couldn't go back home.

There was really only one place left. Skipper pondered if it was the right thing to do to tell her.

"About five blocks away from our training spot, there is a small café." He finally began. Marlene looked up at him in surprise. Skipper ignored it and continued. "The owner of the shop knows about us, and he's the only one you can go to now that's safe. The shop is called Roger's Café. You should be able to find it."

Marlene listened intently, not wanting to miss anything. "When you do find it, go straight in. There will only be one man in the café, and he is Roger. Tell him what happened. He'll know what to do. " He paused to let Marlene take in the information. "Do you understand?"

"Roger's. Five blocks away from Platform. Got it." Marlene repeated and nodded.

"Then go." Skipper said, nodding towards the door behind her. "Go now, before someone figures you've been in here too long."

At first, she got up immediately. But then she paused, like she just realized something. She looked over at Skipper, who met her eyes with a blank stare. He shrugged. "Go."

Marlene hesitated, but she still turned towards the door. As she went over and reached out to the handle, she paused again. This time, she looked back at Skipper with determination. "Skipper?"

Skipper raised an eyebrow in inquiry.

"I'll get you out of this. Somehow."

And with that, she opened the door and left the room, leaving Skipper to himself.

Skipper replayed the entire incident in his mind again. He chuckled. "Platform, huh? Well, it _does_ have a nice ring to it."

* * *

Ant walked down the hall, hands in his pockets. Marlene wasn't in his office when he returned, but he had expected that. He could guess where his surrogate sister is now. There really was only one place she _would_ go.

It didn't matter what his sister's doing now. He knew there was no way she'd be able to free their "guest" in such a short time. _Let her do what she wants for now._ He figured.

He rounded a corner which led to one of the entrances of this base. To his mild surprise, he saw Marlene fiddling with the handle.

"Hey, sis." He called out. Marlene visibly tensed. "Where're you going?"

Marlene didn't respond for a few seconds. Ant figured she was probably nervous. She had a right to be, being dragged into this mess so suddenly. "Out." She finally answered and continued to work with the handle.

Ant cocked his head. "You do know that it's raining out there, right?"

"So what?" Marlene said. "The water won't hurt me. I figured I needed to get some fresh air, you know?"

The handle finally gave in and the door opened. Marlene gave a small triumphant smile.

"I'll be back." She called over her shoulder and went through the door.

"Hey, wait-" Ant said, but Marlene was already gone.

"But you never go out when it's raining!" He continued even though he knew she couldn't hear him. Ant scratched at his short hair. If Marlene was willing to go out with the risk of rain, she must've been really serious.

_Oh well._ He shrugged. This didn't mean anything. And even if it _did_ mean anything at all, he'd be prepared. Nothing could change what's about to happen.

_Nothing.

* * *

_

"Oh, my." Roger sighed as he watched the downpour from the glass walls of his café. "Will it ever stop raining?"

Staring outside for a few more seconds, the big man then busied himself with a new recipe he's been trying to make. The operatives haven't been up here for a while, so Roger wanted to make something new to surprise them. He knew that Mort and Private in particular would be very happy if he did.

Humming a tune he had heard from somewhere (he had forgotten where) before, he collected the different ingredients from his cabinets and began either sampling them or smelling them one by one. As he did, he thought about what everyone liked. Private and Mort shouldn't be any problem, as they liked everything he made. Julien liked sweeter tastes, while Skipper preferred more bitter flavors. Maurice needs sugar, period. Doris likes saltier thing. Mason and Phil are more likely to favor something more on the sour side. Tom, when he occasionally came up, always took more insipid orders. Eric hasn't been up for over five years now, so Roger wasn't sure what he liked anymore. Though Roger really didn't blame him. Poor kid.

Then there was Kowalski. Roger had long since noticed that the tall operative didn't seemingly favor any taste. He ate whatever Roger brought to the table, but it wasn't like Private's or Mort's love for food. It was more like he didn't care. And though it seemed like Kowalski liked sweets at first, Roger soon noticed that he didn't eat any of the sweets given to him right away. The baker wasn't sure what the scientist did with the confectioneries afterwards, but he suspected that they haven't been touched at all. It's been like that for the last seventeen years he'd known him.

Thinking about it all, he almost jumped when the bell above the door to his café chimed, signaling that a customer had come. Sorting his thoughts, he glanced up at whoever it was to greet them. With a smile, of course.

He was surprised to see a girl he hadn't seen before. The girl was soaked from top the bottom, her clothes dripping with water. She was panting heavily as she glanced around the small space of the shop, seemingly unsure of what to do next. What really caught Roger's attention, was an unusually white streak that stood out against the natural brown of the hair that was covering the left side of her face.

Then he saw the alarmingly red tinge mix with the water dripping down her left arm.

"Good heavens." He gasped as he quickly made his way out from behind the counter. "What've you been through? You're hurt! C'mon, I'll get you a towel and-"

"You're Roger?" The girl cut him off with the demand. Roger blinked. "Yes, I am."

The girl's face changed from that of uneasiness to relief and happiness as she sighed. Her tensed shoulder relaxed as she straightened herself. Roger took a moment to take that in before finally breaking the silence, "I'm not sure why my name would mean so much to you, but you're obviously unwell. I'll go get you a towel, and then we can figure out what to do, alright?"

He turned to find a towel from the back of the store, where he lived. He'll grab the first-aid kit, too. Just in case.

"Wait!" The girl called. Roger looked back at her, confused. She shook her head. "Forget the towel. I need your help."

Roger turned to face her fully as he tried again to make the girl understand that she's in desperate need of a towel before she caught either a cold or pneumonia. But the girl's next words stopped him cold.

"My name is Marlene, and Skipper told me I should come find you." She said steadily.

"Skipper's in trouble."

_**To be continued…

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**_

**So….It's finally finished! Chapter 6, that is. XD**

**So in the time I was writing this chapter, I took the time to put up my arts over at both DA and FP, thanks to the newly acquired scanner. And people actually liked them. And somehow, it seems that my arts led to more readers for the story. Which is ironic, since I had initially wanted my **_**story**_** to get more viewers for my arts. Ha.**

**The hardest part of this chapter, the part that had me banging my head against the wall a few times was the scene between Marlene and Skipper. It was hard to write them for that scene to turn out the way I wanted it to, yet keep them both in character at the same time. I had to rewrite that part so many times that it's not even funny. But I like how it turned out in the end, though The One Whose Reviews Are Long would probably tell me that I could've done better. XD**

**On the bright side of it all, the anime/manga club at our school has planned to publish any work its club members could give. And, being in the Novel Team of the club, all the members in the team are required to write a story to publish. I have decided to use this arc of my otherwise long story. In other words, when I'm finished with this arc, this part will be printed into a book. But I probably won't sell it. I'll just add a cover for it to protect it and lock it in my vault.**

**Yes, I am very excited. I am forcing myself not the use Caps Lock. XD**

**Anyway, I'm very happy that I'll be able to get my story published into a real book. This gives me more motivation to finish this arc as soon as possible, though I reckon the next part of this arc shouldn't be that hard to write. I already have half of it planned out, after all. Do expect more from me!**

**~ruth~**


	8. Chapter 7: Meeting the Rest of the Team

**Hello~~! I know you people have been waiting for this, so I'm not going to give you guys any of my pathetic excuses, which includes traveling, writer's block, not enough time, etc…BUT you guys don't need to hear that. So there! Let us ignore the fact that this chapter took me six month overall to complete and rejoice that it stands before us right now! =D**

**Again, many thanks to **_**crazyMADgirl, Demonizedangel455, henry2fat, The Darkly Angel, Shiona Acitiu, AgentJazzy00, EppopinkfangirlXDXDXD, Sparrow, 2 be loved, mewsugarpudd, SunflowerIce, The Awsome one, Raven Black, and keira-kyuketsuki **_**(wow, that's a lot reviewers) for reviewing! Thank you all very much!**

**Disclaimer: Do I have to do this every time? I'm running out of ideas here.**

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_**Chapter 7: Meeting the Rest of the Team**_

Back at the Tech Room, the boy was still typing. His eyes were fixed on the screen as his fingers flew across the keyboard. "Dammit." He cursed. "Either someone out there is better than me, or they must have completely destroyed the belt. And we both know that the latter is the more reasonable one."

Kowalski had no argument to that. No one that actually knew the boy would have an argument to that. And anyone who did know him knew that he was no ordinary boy.

Suddenly, a small, dark green dot appeared on the corner of the screen, blinking steadily. The boy's movements stopped. His hands then flew up and grabbed the headphones that were resting on his neck, placing them over his ears. His left hand turned the dial on one side of it while his right hand brought down the mike that was stowed away in the compartment above.

"What is it?" Kowalski asked as he sprung up from the stool he was sitting on, immediately alert.

"Got a call from Roger's." The shorter of the two replied curtly as he continued to spin the dial until he found what he was looking for. There was a moment of tense silence as Kowalski waited for him to relay whatever message he was hearing.

Then the blond chuckled dryly.

"You're in luck, kid. Even though about ninety percent of that is bad luck, I'd say." He told Kowalski. Kowalski tensed. The word "kid" that the boy used to call him told him that the percentage of good luck may be even lower.

"On the bright side of it all, we know where Low-life is." The boy said before continuing to listen to the rest of the call. After a few seconds, Kowalski noticed that the boy had that look. The last time he saw that look his lab what been vandalized with the letters _EC_.

He gulped. "What is it?" He pressed after a few more agonizing seconds of silence, "Is it good or bad?"

The blond gave him a wry smirk and thrust his hands into his overall pockets, "That depends. How brave are you feeling?"

* * *

"There, we're all done!" Roger said cheerfully as he finished properly treating the gash on Marlene's arm.

Marlene shifted slightly, still uneasy around this man that she just met. "Thanks."

The large man flashed a toothy, yet somehow warm smile at her. "No problem! I'll go make you some hot chocolate, alright?" And with that, he left the room.

Marlene sighed and leaned back, tilting the chair she was sitting on so that she was balancing on only two of its legs. Wrapping the beach towel, which Roger had dug out from one of the closets, around herself tighter, she closed her eyes and sighed yet again.

After she told Roger what had happened, the baker had stared at her for a few seconds before insisting that she come to the back of the store to at least get dried. As much as Marlene wanted the man to do something about the situation at hand, she figured it'd probably be best if she listened to what the one who had become her only ally said.

Roger had led her through a door behind the counter, which led to a short corridor that ended with another door that Marlene guessed was the back door. The corridor had two doors at each side. The first door to the left, Roger had explained, was the storage room. The door directly across the corridor from it supposedly led to what the baker had called the Niche. Walking pass these two doors, they went into the room that had its door on the same side of the corridor as the storage room. Roger introduced this as the guest room.

Inside the room was some basic furniture. There had been a standard sized bed, a desk, and small dresser. Two doors were visible in the wall directly across from them.

_The closet and the bathroom._ Marlene recalled Roger saying.

After settling down, Roger had again insisted on treating her first. This time Marlene didn't protest. Now she was in the room, alone with her thoughts.

_I wonder how Skipper is doing._ She wondered. Thinking of the Penguin leader made her sigh again. The guilt she had been pushing back ever since his capture finally found a crack in her mental dam and flooded her mind like the Mississippi River. Millions of questions swirled around in her and she couldn't find the answer to any of them.

She was distracted from the currents of the blame when Roger knocked gently on the door before letting himself in.

"I made cookies!" He beamed as he showed the tray in his hand, complete with a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows on top and a plate of oatmeal cookies.

Marlene had to admit that it looked really tempting, especially after the events of unknowingly betraying a friend and finally getting said friend's trust back and boarding on a rescue mission that she's not sure she had exactly boarded on yet.

"Thanks," She said simply and took a cookie for herself. Roger set down the plate on the desk and pulled a chair over for himself.

Roger waited until Marlene took a sip of the hot chocolate before breaking the comfortable silence. "I already contacted people who can help us. Don't worry, they're all friends of Skipper." He quickly added at the girl's dismayed look. "They'll be here soon. I also asked for them to bring you a set of clothes to change into. Wouldn't want you to catch a cold." He finished with a gentle smile.

Marlene blinked. She hadn't thought about the problem of not having dry clothes. She figured that her soaked attire will become dry themselves by the time she needed them to be dry, but judging from the water still dripping off the edge of her shirt, that was clearly not the case.

She glanced at the towering man smiling at her and showed the baker her first smile that day. She would've thanked him, but it seemed so redundant all of the sudden. Roger understood.

"So, Marlene, was it?" Roger asked politely. Marlene nodded while taking another sip of the hot chocolate. Roger smiled again, taking upon himself to lighten the mood. "So how did you meet Skipper, anyway?"

Marlene froze for a split second, quickly pondering if she should tell the whole truth or just summarize it.

She settled for the latter. "It was an accident." She muttered, taking another sip right after she finished.

Roger chuckled. "I can see that happening. For some reason, I can't imagine Skipper willingly revealing himself to anyone." They both shared a quick chuckle over the comment, but soon lapsed into silence again.

Roger took this time to study the young woman before him. She seemed to be in her twenties, possibly the same age as Doris. She looked at bit pale, but Roger wasn't sure if that was due to the experience of having a loved one betray her or just her normal complex. Her visible amber eye was sharp, but at the same time, there was a tiredness in it that made Roger want to frown, only stopping in fear that his less joyful expression would scare the girl. That tiredness was also visible in the way the brunette's shoulders slumped, like she was carrying a heavy weight on her shoulders.

_It's guilt._ Roger realized.

"It must be hard." Roger commented quietly. Marlene looked up at him almost instantly, either startled by what he said or expecting more from him. He had to do this carefully if he wanted to help her load off the guilt. He decided that redirecting the blame to someone else might be a good first step.

"To have your own trusted brother betray you." He continued. "If it were me, I know I'd be devasta-"

He was cut off when Marlene suddenly stood up so quickly that she almost knocked the mug of hot chocolate over. Clearly he had chosen the wrong thing to say.

"Ant did _not_ betray me!" She all but shouted. The rage was clear in her eye. "He had no choice! There must be a good reason why he did what he did, and I know that once this is all over, he'll explain! So _never_, don't you _ever_ talk like that about him! What do you even know about him?" She glared at the man that was easily able to meet her eyes directly even though she was standing and he was sitting. Roger was a bit surprised by the outburst, but as he looked into the girl's single eye, he saw that Marlene believed every word she just said.

"I see." He said quietly. Then he drew out an apologetic smile. "You're right, I shouldn't have assumed anything about a person I didn't know. I didn't know that he held so much importance to you. I'm sorry."

The words seemed to calm the girl down, and she hesitated before looking away. "No, I'm sorry for that outburst. That was inappropriate of me."

Roger smiled brightly again, "It is fine. I understand why you got angry." He then picked a cookie from the plate and offered it to her. "Cookie?"

* * *

Deep underground, where the sewer lines lay, three figures were moving swiftly through the tunnels that would have been a maze to normal people.

"Kowalski…"

"…"

"Are you sure you don't want me to carry tha-"

"_No._"

Private quickly shut his mouth. He cast a worried look at Rico, who shrugged when he caught his look. Then they both looked forward at the back of the tallest of them, who was leading them towards Rogers via the tunnels, a white bag in his hands. He held the bag gingerly away from himself as if it were radioactive, but at the same time his fingers had a death grip on it that dared anyone to even think about taking the bag away.

Kowalski tried, and failed, to repress a blush as he recalled exactly _how_ this bag got into his hands. He still wasn't sure if the fact that it was in _his_ hands was a good thing or not. He'd rather not think about that. Rather, he cursed the operatives of the opposite gender. Or lack of them, anyways.

The others didn't dare say anything else. The rest of the trip to Roger's Café was carried out in silence.

When they did reached the café, Kowalski marched right in through the hidden entrance they had installed, only stopping when he was in front of a surprised Roger, who had been taking out the empty mug and plate to the sink up front. Private and Rico hurried into the store after him.

"Where is she?" The scientist demanded.

Roger blinked. "Kowalski? Why is your face so red? Do you have a fever?"

Kowalski twitched. He quickly set the white bag on the counter and pushed it toward the taller man. "Just…just give it to her."

Roger, blinking again, peeked into the bag, thus completely missing the half murderous look Kowalski was shooting at him for the seemingly innocent act. Realization dawned upon the large man as he saw the contents of the bag, and he let out a cheerful, "Oh."

Turning around, he walked back to the guest room door (totally oblivious to Kowalski's eyes following his every move) and rapped on it gently.

"Marlene!" He called, "Your change of clothes is here!"

* * *

Marlene rummaged through the bag of clothing that Roger had brought in earlier. There wasn't a lot to choose from, but Marlene wanted to see in there were any clothing that were more to her taste. She settled for a plain white T-shirt, a short-sleeved pale blue shirt, and a pair of dark sweatpants.

She then realized she was still lacking what needs to go under those clothes.

Digging deeper into the bag, she found the items she was looking for. She pulled them out and looked at them. The bottom ones should be no problem. And then there was-

She stopped when she saw the piece of clothing in her hand. She stared. She knew immediately the she was never going to fit into those.

Sighing, she tossed it back into the bag. Still, part of her (a _really_ tiny part of her) couldn't help but envy whoever the clothes belonged to.

Sighing again, she banished the thought and looked around the room. Her eye landed on the first-aid kit that Roger had conveniently left behind. An idea popped into her head, and she shrugged.

_Guess I'll just make do with what I have._ She thought as she reached for a roll of bandages.

* * *

Skipper sat where Marlene had left him, waiting quietly. The wire he had abandoned when Ant punched him was back in his hands, out of sight and now with a newly grinded sharp end.

His head was lowered, but his eyes watched the door intently. He needed someone, anyone, to come. Still, this would be a bit more difficult if Ant or someone of the same caliber as the smiling brunet was the one that stepped into the room. He needed someone that would lower their guard without realizing it.

As he waited, his mind traveled back to everything that happened today. Even though he knew he should be concentrating right now, he couldn't help it. So many things happened in the past twenty-four hours that it was hard not to think about them. He wondered what Marlene was doing now? No doubt Roger had already contacted HQ, and he was positive his team would be on the move. At the very least, she would be safe.

The door finally opened, and Skipper snapped back into focus. At the door was a blond kid surprisingly young, and Skipper suspected that he's even younger than Private. Had he been able to see through solid objects, he would have known that this was the same Blondie that had been guarding the door when Marlene came.

Skipper's dark sapphire eyes scanned the kid from head to toe, finally settling on what Blondie held in his hands. He was surprised to see a plate in the boy's hand, carrying a simple sandwich.

"I have no idea why Mr. Antonio would want to feed you, but…" Blondie shrugged as he set the plate down outside the cage, "Oh well, you might as well enjoy it while you can."

The boy turned to go. Skipper stared before loudly clearing his throat. Blondie stopped and looked back, shooting him a questioning look. Skipper only raised an eyebrow, hoping that the boy would get what he was indicating at.

"What?" The boy asked after ten seconds of stare down.

_Clearly not._ Skipper rolled his eyes and raised his cuffed hands, specifically dangling the chain for the boy the see. Blondie's eyes widened slightly. "Oh."

_Yeah, "Oh"._ He fought the urged for a cynical remark. Then he lowered with arms and watched the boy, hoping this would play out as he had planned.

He hid a smile as Blondie reached into his pockets and pulled out a ring of keys. Well, it only had three keys, but that was perfect. He wasn't wrong in betting that Ant wasn't the only one with the key.

He watched the boy unlock the cage door and make his way into space. He waited as the boy walked closer and closer to him. Now came the most crucial part. The kid had to walk further than the point where the chain came short, which Skipper had marked with an insignificant pebble. If he didn't, the whole plan would be blown out of the nonexistent window.

Luckily for the Penguin leader, the kid kept walking until he was only less than five feet away from him.

_Yes, that's it. Keep it up_. Skipper thought as his eyes followed the boy's movements as he bent down to place the plate down, making it impossible for the boy to see him.

_Now._

With swiftness never before witnessed by outside eyes, Skipper lunged at the boy and drove the pointed wire into one of the many pressure points on the boy that he could locate with one glance. Blondie went limp without even the chance to open his mouth and say, "Ow."

Skipper caught the boy's arm before he could hit the ground and gently lay him down.

"You still have a chance, kid." Skipper muttered impassively, even though he knew the unconscious boy couldn't hear him. He reached into the pocket where the keys were. "Do something useful with your life."

He stared at the three keys, and decided to try his luck with the smallest one. Using his mouth, he stuck the key into the hole on his handcuffs and turned. He was awarded with a soft _click_.

_And that's the relatively easy part. _Skipper thought as he rubbed his sore wrists. He looked at the door, now possibly the only thing blocking him from freedom. He remembered catching a glimpse of a tattooed arm when Marlene opened the door do leave, and there clearly wasn't any tattoos on this boy's arm, which means there must be at least one more person outside that door. Or he could get lucky and they had changed shifts, replacing the one with the tattoos with this blond. But judging the way this day had been so far, he highly doubted it.

"Dude!"

Skipper almost jumped when another voice sounded from the other side of the slightly ajar door. Quickly pocketing the keys, he moved to the spot by the doorframe even as the door was slowly pulled open.

"What's taking you so long? It was just one lousy sandwi-" The tattooed boy didn't even get the chance to see his snoozing friend on the ground before being sent into dream world himself.

Skipper once again caught the arm of a falling teen, making sure the kid didn't crash into the floor. He gave himself a moment to sigh. If only all of the lackeys and goons were this easy to take care of…

Shaking himself out of those thoughts, he refocused on the door that was now wide open. This room seemed to be at the end of a long, badly lit hallway, and the hallway was presently void of people. Skipper quickly weighed his options, and had to bite himself on the lip to stop a phrase that had automatically formed in his mouth from getting out all together.

"_Kowalski, options."_

_There is no Kowalski. There is no Rico. There is no Private. _He reminded himself. _You're on your own now._

Somehow, that realization alone made him even more determined to get out of this mess by himself.

* * *

As soon as the girl stepped out of the guest room, Rico began examining her. He had heard about the girl from Kowalski, but wanted to make some analysis of his own.

The girl was just finishing tying her long, brown, and semi-wet hair into a high ponytail. The white streak in the part of her hair that hid the left side of her face was unusual, but not of much significance. Rico had seen too much in his 25 years of operative life for anything to be much of a surprise to him anymore.

The girl was taller than Private, but didn't seem as tall as Skipper, which put her at about 5 feet 7. Pretty tall for a female. She was thin, but not unhealthily so. Rico could read some muscular build under the skin, but not much. She was fit, but not well-built.

A smirk formed on his lips when his eyes settled on the girl's chest. Maybe that was the reason why this girl liked fighting so much, as opposed to someone like Doris. The girl was no where near Doris's level in that particular area.

He suddenly found himself wondering what the girl used to replace the piece of Doris's clothing he knew she couldn't wear.

Glancing over at Kowalski, he could tell that the strategist had reached the same conclusion as he did. If nothing else, there was the mixture of disbelief, dread, and doom etched on his face. And then there was the faint blush. Rico chuckled silently. This could prove to be interesting.

He composed himself when the girl finished tying her ponytail and looked up at them. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kowalski do the same.

"Are you Marlene?" The taller Penguin asked calmly. Like he didn't just realize that he had to carry a very important piece of clothing of the girl of his dreams' back to the HQ. Rico almost laughed at the thought.

"Yes." The girl (_Marlene_, Rico reminded himself) nodded.

"Tell us what happened. We want every detail of it." Kowalski said. To Rico, it sounded more like an order. Marlene seemed also taken by surprise by the demand, and she looked hesitant. Was she deciding if she could trust them? If so, Rico found it amusingly ironic that _they_ were trying to see if they could trust _her_.

After a few long seconds (with the only sound being Roger's humming as he cooked in the background), it was Private who finally broke the tense silence.

"It's all right." He said cheerfully in his British accent as he stepped out from where Kowalski was blocking Rico's line of vision of him. "You can trust us. We've worked alongside Skipper for six years already. Well, that's only if you counted from when we started to work as a team, though. I've known Skipper for roughly ten years! And Kowalski here- umph!" He was silenced when Kowalski snaked an arm around his neck and clamped a hand on his mouth. As the youngest of them struggled against Kowalski's grip, the tallest Penguin glared down at the boy while Rico gave an exasperated sigh.

And then Private looked up at them with big, apologetic eyes, which Rico knew both he and Kowalski could never say no to. Hell, even Skipper had trouble standing his ground when exposed to those eyes. They were a lethal weapon.

Kowalski sighed in defeat. "Fine." He said as he let go of the boy. Private grinned brightly and held up a peace sign. Or was it a victory sign?

Suddenly, Rico's attention on the boy was broken when a laugh began resounding in the café.

All at once, Rico and the other two Penguins turned their head toward the source of the laugh, and were mildly surprised when they saw Marlene almost doubling over with laughter.

She stifled the laugh when she noticed all the eyes on her. "I…I'm sorry. It's just that I thought you guys would be more…hard to talk to."

Rico wasn't sure if that should be considered a compliment or not. Nevertheless, he smirked. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Private grin and Kowalski let out a small smile.

"Well, then!" Roger chirped as he suddenly appeared between them. "Now that you guys got that sorted out, why don't you talk while sitting down at that table over there? If you're hungry, I've got something for everyone!"

* * *

In the office at the Aces warehouse, Ant smiled as he watched the clouds dispersing after the rain. He spread his arms out in front of the window as he talked to the only other person in the room. "Look at the sky, my friend. We will be able to see the moon tonight."

He turned and flashed a smile. "I'm sure our guest would appreciate a dry stage, no?" He then turned back to the window and let out a sigh. "Shame that my sister won't be able to see the grand finale."

His companion scratched at his unbelievably messy mop he called hair. "I don't get it, Ant. If you care about her so much, why did you make the order?"

Ant smiled again. It was a cunning smile that had no mirth behind it.

"Patience, my dear Fred. Patience." He said as he once again looked up at the sky dyed red by the setting sun, cracking open one of his perpetually closed eyes. "All will be revealed soon enough."

_**To be continued…**_

* * *

**Special thanks to EppopinkfangirlXDXDXD for beta-reading this chapter! (Yes, I'm using your full username. Deal with it. XD)**

**I can really say that it is a good thing I got a beta. I had loads of typos that you guys would've been forced to read through if Eppo didn't beta for me. Yes, 'tis a good thing indeed. XD**

**Some things I want to say about this chapter: Rico. For some reason, I never did imagine him as being crazy and psychotic in my world. And when I draw him, he's either serious or frowning. Unless he has a weapon in his hands, in which he smirks. But that's beside the point. The point is, don't expect to see crazy Rico in this story, because he isn't.**

**Fred. He snuck himself in. I had no intention of bringing him into SO, but it just…happened. I'm still trying to figure out **_**how**_** it happened, though.**

**A-a-and, I have an announcement. I have officially started the second year of high school, and according to my teachers, it all depends on this year to see if you're either going to a) rise out from your current grades into "The Plane of Ridiculously High Grades" or b) disappear into "The Abyss of Things Not Related to Schoolwork". So…if I want to stay in the middle (I have no intention of going to the Plane, thank you very much), I'll have to spend more time on school and less time on things like writing fan fictions.**

**I know, I know, most of you are probably going like, "Crap! She had two whole months of free summer vacation and couldn't produce chapter 7, now she's going to have less time to complete chapter 8? Doesn't this spell the end of SO?" But don't worry! I think I can manage! Best case scenario, we'll see chapter 8 by the end of the year! Those four months will be nothing compared to the six months wait for **_**this**_** chapter! *is bricked***

**Anyway, jokes aside, I will do my best to write chapter 8 during my free time, and I assure you that what happened with this chapter will not happen again. Hopefully.**

**Now that I have officially send this chapter over the ****4590** word mark, I'm going to shut up and wish you all a good new school year! Happy studying, everyone!

**~ruth~**


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